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“LOST BUT NOT FORGOTTEN” – 6. LOST WORK

source : wikipedia.com

A < lost work> is a Document or Literary Work produced some time in the past of which no surviving copies are known to exist. Surviving copies of old or ancient works are called extant. Works may be lost to history either through the destruction of the original manuscript, or through the non-survival of any copies of the work. Deliberate destruction of works may be termed literary crime or literary vandalism (see book burning). In some cases fragments may survive, either found by archaeology, or sometimes reused as bookbinding materials, or because they are quoted in other works. The discovery in 1822 of large parts of Cicero’s De re publica was one of the first major recoveries of an ancient text from a palimpsest, while the most famous recent example is the discovery of the Archimedes palimpsest (hidden in a much later prayer book). Most missing works are described by works or compilations that survive, such as the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder or the De Architectura by Vitruvius. Sometimes authors destroyed their own works. Other times they instructed others to destroy the work after their deaths; such action was not taken in several well-known cases, such as Virgil’s Aeneid saved by Augustus, and Kafka’s novels saved by Max Brod. Many works were apparently lost when the Library of Alexandria burned down in the Roman period, or perhaps later. Before the era of printing, manuscripts were handwritten, and very few copies existed, explaining why so much has been lost.

Works that no others referred to, of course, remain unknown and totally forgotten. The term most commonly applies to works from the classical world, although it is increasingly used in relation to more modern works.

NOTABLE LOST WORKS :

1.1 Classical world : Specific works

* Agatharchides’:
< Ta kata ten Asian > (Affairs in Asia) in 10 books,
< Ta kata ten Europen > (Affairs in Europe) in 49 books
< Peri ten Erythras thalasses > (On the Erythraean Sea) in 5 books

*    Sulpicius Alexander’s < Historia >

*    Anaxagoras’ book of philosophy- only fragments of the first part have survived.

*    Archimedes’
< On Sphere-Making >
< On Polyhedra >

*    Aristarchus of Samos’s astronomy book outlining his heliocentric theory

*    Aristotle’s second book of < Poetics > dealing with comedy
< On the Pythagoreans >

*    Imperator Caesar Divi filius Augustus’ < De Vita Sua >

*    Berossus’ < Babyloniaca > (History of Babylonia)

*    Gaius Julius Caesar’s
< Anticatonis Libri II > (only fragments survived)
< Carmina et prolusiones > (only fragments survived)
< De analogia libri II > ad M. Tullium Ciceronem
< De astris liber >
< Dicta collectanea > (“collected sayings”)
< Letters > (only fragments survived)
< Epistulae ad Ciceronem >
< Epistulae ad familiares >
< Iter > (only one fragment survived)
< Laudes > Herculis
< Libri auspiciorum >(“books of auspices”, also known as Auguralia)
< Oedipus >
-other works:
-contributions to the “libri pontificales” as “pontifex maximus”
-possibly some early love poems

*    Callisthenes’
-An account of Alexander’s expedition
-A history of Greece from the Peace of Antalcidas (387) to the Phocian war (357).
-A history of the Phocian war

*    Sulla’s Memoirs, referenced by Plutarch

*    Cato the Elder’s:
< Origines > a 7 book history of Rome and the Italian states.
< Carmen de moribus > a book of prayers or incantations for the dead in verse.
< Praecepta ad Filium > a collection of maxims.
– A collection of his speeches.

*    Quintus Tullius Cicero’s:
-Four tragedies in the Greek style: < Tiroas > < Erigones > < Electra > and one other.
-Hortensius, a dialogue also known as “On Philosophy”.

*    Claudius’
< De arte alea > (“the art of playing dice”, a book on dice games)
-an “Etruscan” dictionary
-an “Etruscan” history
-a history of Augustus’ reign
-eight volumes on “Carthaginian” history
-a defense of Cicero against the charges of Asinius Gallus

*    Ctesibius
< On pneumatics > a work describing force pumps
< Memorabilia > a compilation of his research works

*    Ctesias’:
< Persica > a history of Assyria and Persia in 23 books.
< Indica > an account of India

*    Eratosthenes
< On the Measurement of the Earth > (lost, summarized by Cleomedes)
< Geographica > (lost, criticized by Strabo)
< Arsinoe > (a memoir of queen Arsinoe; lost; quoted by Athenaeus in the           Deipnosophistae)

*    Euclid’s
< Conics > a work on conic sections later extended by Apollonius of Perga into           his famous work on the subject.
< Porisms > the exact meaning of the title is controversial (probably “corollaries”).
< Pseudaria > or Book of Fallacies, an elementary text about errors in reasoning.
< Surface Loci > concerned either loci (sets of points) on surfaces or loci which were themselves surfaces.

*    Eudemus’:
< History of Arithmetics > on the early history of Greek arithmetics (only one            short quote survives)
< History of Astronomy > on the early history of Greek astronomy (several quotes survive)
< History of Geometry > on the early history of Greek geometry (several quotes survive)

*    Verrius Flaccus’:
< De Orthographia > : “De Obscuris Catonis”, an elucidation of obscurities in the writings of Cato the Elder
< Saturnus > dealing with questions of Roman ritual
< Rerum memoria dignarum libri > an encyclopaedic work much used by Pliny the Elder
< Res Etruscae > probably on “augury”.

*    Frontinus:
< De re militari > a military manual

*    Gorgias’:
< On Non-Existence > (or On Nature) – Only two sketches of it exist.
< Epitaphios > – What exists is thought to be only a small fragment of a significantly longer piece.

*    The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women

*    Homer’s Margites.

*    Livy:
107 of the 142 books of “Ab Urbe Condita” (book), a history of Rome

*    Lucan’s:
< Catachthonion >
< Iliacon from the Trojan cycle >
< Epigrammata >
< Adlocutio ad Pollam >
< Silvae >
< Saturnalia >
< Medea >
< Salticae Fabulae >
< Laudes Neronis, a praise of Nero >
< Orpheus >
< Prosa oratio in Octavium Sagittam >
< Epistulae ex Campania >
< De Incendio Urbis >

*    Memnon of Heraclea’s history of Heraclea Pontica.

*    Nicander’s:
< Aetolica > a prose history of Aetolia.
< Heteroeumena > a mythological epic.
< Georgica > and < Melissourgica > of which considerable fragments are preserved.

*    Ovid’s poem “Medea”, of which only two fragments survive.

*    Pamphilus of Alexandria’s comprehensive lexicon in 95 books of foreign or obscure words.

*    Pherecydes of Leros:
A history of Leros
an essay, < On Iphigeneia >
< On the Festivals of Dionysus >
Genealogies of the gods and heroes, originally in ten books; numerous         fragments have been preserved.

*    Pherecydes of Syros’ Heptamychia

*    Pliny the Elder’s:
< History of the German Wars > some quotations survive in Tacitus’ Annals and Germania
< Studiosus > a detailed work on rhetoric
< Dubii sermonis > in eight books
< History of his Times > in thirty-one books, also quoted by Tacitus.
< De jaculatione equestri > a military handbook on missiles thrown from horseback.

*    Gaius Asinius Pollio’s Historiae (“Histories”)

*    Alexander Polyhistor’s Successions of Philosophers.

*    Praxagoras’s History of Constantine the Great.

*    Prodicus’:
< On Nature >
< On the Nature of Man >
< On Propriety of Language >
< On the Choice of Heracles >

*    Protagoras’:
< On the Gods > (essay)
< On the Art of Disputation >
< On the Original State of Things >
< On Truth >

*    Pytheas of Massalia’s (ta peri tou Okeanou) “On the Ocean”.

*    Quintilian’s De Causis Corruptae Eloquentiae (On the Causes of Corrupted Eloquence)

*    Diodorus Siculus’ Bibliotheca historia (Historical Library)- of 40 books, only the first 5 books, and books 10 through 20 are extant.

*    The Hellespontine Sibyl’s Sibylline Books

*    Socrates’ verse versions of Aesop’s Fables.

*    Speusippus
< On Pythagorean Numbers >

*    Strabo’s History.

*    Marcus Terentius Varro’s:
< Saturarum Menippearum libri CL > (Menippean Satires in 150 books)
< Antiquatatum rerum humanarum et divinarum libri XLI >
< Logistoricon libri LXXVI >
< Hebdomades vel de imaginibus >
< Disciplinarum libri IX >

*    Suetonius’
< De Viris Illustribus > (“On Famous Men” — in the field of literature), to which belongs: “De Illustribus Grammaticis” (“Lives Of The Grammarians”),”De Claris Rhetoribus” (“Lives Of The Rhetoricians”), and “Lives Of The Poets”. Some fragments exist.
< Lives of Famous Whores >
< Royal Biographies >
< Roma > (“On Rome”), in four parts: “Roman Manners & Customs”, “The Roman Year”, “The Roman Festivals”, and “Roman Dress”.
< Greek Games >
< On Public Offices >
< On Cicero’s Republic >
< The Physical Defects of Mankind >
< Methods of Reckoning Time >
< An Essay on Nature >
< Greek Terms of Abuse >
< Grammatical Problems >
< Critical Signs Used in Books >

*    Thales
< On the Solstice > (possible lost work)
< On the Equinox > (possible lost work)

*    Varro
< Saturarum Menippearum libri CL > or “Menippean Satires” in 150 books
< Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum libri XLI >
< Logistoricon libri LXXVI >
< Hebdomades vel de imaginibus >
< Disciplinarum libri IX >

* The work of the Cyclic poets (excluding Homer), specifically:
-six epics of the Epic Cycle : “Cypria”, “Aethiopis”, the “Little Iliad”, the”Iliou” persis (“Sack of Troy”), “Nostoi” (“Returns”), and “Telegony”.
-four epics of the Theban Cycle: Oedipodea, Thebaid, Epigoni (epic), and Alcmeonis.
-other early Greek epics: ‘Titanomachy’, ‘Heracleia’, ‘Capture of Oechalia’, ‘Naupactia’, ‘Phocais’, ‘Minyas’

1.2 Classical world : Multiple works

* Lost plays of Aeschylus. He is believed to have written some 90 plays of which six plays survive. A seventh play is attributed to him. Fragments of his play Achilles were said to have been discovered in the wrappings of a mummy in the 1990s

*    Lost plays of Agathon. None of them survives

*    Lost poems of Alcaeus of Mytilene. Of a reported ten scrolls, there exist only quotes and numerous fragments.

*    Lost choral poems of Alcman. Of six books of choral lyrics were known (ca. 50-60 hymns), only fragmentary quotations in other Greek authors were known until the discovery of a fragment in 1855, containing approximately 100 verses. In the 1960s, many more fragments were discovered and published from a dig at Oxyrhynchus.

*    Lost poems of Anacreon. Of the five books of lyrical pieces mentioned in the Suda and by Athenaeus, only mere fragments collected from the citations of later writers now exist.

*    Lost works of Anaximander. There are a few extant fragments of his works.

*    Lost plays of Aristarchus of Tegea. Of seventy pieces, only the titles of three of his plays, with a single line of the text have survived.

*    Lost plays of Aristophanes. He wrote forty plays, eleven of which survive.

*    Lost works of Aristotle. It is believed that we have about one third of his original works.

*    Lost work of Aristoxenus. He is said to have written 453 works, dealing with philosophy, ethics and music. His only extant work is Elements of Harmony.

*    Lost works of the historian Arrian.

*    Lost works of Callimachus. Of about 800 works, in verse and prose; only six hymns, sixty-four epigrams and some fragments survive; a considerable fragment of the epic Hecale, was discovered in the Rainer papyri.

*    Lost works of Chrysippus. Of over 700 written works, none survive, except a few fragments embedded in the works of later authors.

*    Lost works of Cicero. Of his books, six on rhetoric have survived, and parts of seven on philosophy. Books 1-3 of his work De re publica have survived mostly intact, as well as a substantial part of book 6. A dialogue on philosophy called Hortensius, which was highly influential on Augustine of Hippo, is lost.

*    Lost works of Clitomachus. According to Diogenes Laertius, he wrote some 400 books, of which none are extant today, although a few titles are known.

*    Lost plays of Cratinus. Only fragments of his works have been preserved.

*    Lost works of Democritus. He wrote extensively on natural philosophy and ethics, of which little remains.

*    Lost works of Diphilus. He is said to have written 100 comedies, the titles of fifty of which are preserved.

*    Lost works of Ennius. Only fragments of his works survive.

*    Lost works of Empedocles. Little of what he wrote survives today.

*    Lost plays of Epicharmus of Kos. He wrote between 35 and 52 comedies, many of which have been lost or exist only in fragments.

*    Lost plays of Euripides. He is believed to have written over ninety plays, eighteen of which have survived. Fragments, some substantial, of most other plays also survive.

*    Lost plays of Eupolis. Of the 17 plays attributed to him, only fragments remain.

*    Lost works of Heraclitus. His writings only survive in fragments quoted by other authors.

*    Lost works of Hippasus. Few of his original works now survive.

*    Lost works of Hippias. He is credited with an excellent work on Homer, collections of Greek and foreign literature, and archaeological treatises, but nothing remains except the barest notes.

*    Lost orations of Hyperides. Some 79 speeches were transmitted in his name in antiquity. A codex of his speeches was seen at Buda in 1525. in the library of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, but was destroyed by the Turks in 1526. In 2002, Natalie Tchernetska of Trinity College, Cambridge discovered and identified fragments of two speeches of Hyperides that have been considered lost, Against Timandros and Against Diondas. Six other orations survive in whole or part.

*    Lost poems of Ibycus. According to the Suda, he wrote seven books of lyrics.

*    Lost works of Juba II. He wrote a number of books in Greek and Latin on history, natural history, geography, grammar, painting and theatre. Only fragments of his work survive.

*    Lost works of Leucippus. No writings exist which we can attribute to him.

*    Lost works of Melissus of Samos. Only fragments preserved in other writers’ works exist.

*    Lost plays of Menander. He wrote over a hundred comedies of which one survives. Fragments of a number of his plays survive.

*    Lost works of Philemon. Of his ninety-seven works, fifty-seven are known to us only as titles and fragments.

*    Lost poetry of Pindar. Of his varied books of poetry, only his victory odes survive in complete form. The rest are known only by quotations in other works or papyrus scraps unearthed in Egypt.

*    Lost plays of Plautus. He wrote approximately one hundred and thirty plays, of which twenty-one survive.

*    Lost poems and orations of Pliny the Younger.

*    Rhetorical works of Julius Pollux.

*    Lost works of Posidonius. All of his works are now lost. Some fragments exist, as well as titles and subjects of many of his books.

*    Lost works of Proclus. A number of his commentaries on Plato are lost.

*    Lost works of Pyrrhus. He wrote Memoirs and several books on the art of war, all now lost. According to Plutarch, Hannibal was influenced by them and they received praise from Cicero.

*    Lost works of Pythagoras. No texts by him survive.

*    Lost plays of Rhinthon. Of thirty-eight plays, only a few titles and lines have been preserved.

*    Lost poems of Sappho. Only a few full poems and fragments of others survive.

*    Lost poems of Simonides of Ceos. Of his poetry we possess two or three short elegies, several epigrams and about 90 fragments of lyric poetry.

*    Lost plays of Sophocles. Of 123 plays, 7 survive, with fragments of others.

*    Lost poems of Stesichorus. Of several long works, significant fragments survive.

*    Lost works of Theodectes. Of his fifty tragedies, we have the names of about thirteen and a few unimportant fragments. His treatise on the art of rhetoric and his speeches are lost.

*    Lost works of Theophrastus. Of his 227 books, only a handful survive, including On Plants and On Stones, but On Mining is lost. Fragments of others survive.

*    Lost works of Timon. None of his works survive except where he is quoted by others, mainly Sextus Empiricus

*    Lost works of Xenophanes. Fragments of his poetry survive only as quotations by later Greek writers.

*    Lost works of Zeno of Elea. None of his works survive intact.

* Lost works of Zeno of Citium. None of his writings have survived except as fragmentary quotations preserved by later writers.

2. Ancient Chinese texts

* < Classic of Music > by Confucius.

* Medical treatise of the renowned physician < Hua Tuo > from late Eastern Han. The treatise was traditionally referred to as “Qing Nang Shu”, literally “Book in the Cyan Bag”. When Hua Tuo was sentenced to death after incurring the wrath of “Cao Cao”, who controlled the Imperial Court, the physician tried to entrust the text to his gaoler. However, the gaoler was afraid of potentially implicating himself and in disappointment, Hua Tuo had the text burnt. Records of the Three Kingdoms Chapter 29, Book of Wei – Technology

* Book of Bai Ze, a guide to the forms and habits of all 11,520 types of supernatural creatures in the world, and how to overcome their hauntings and attacks, as dictated by the mythical creature, Bai Ze to the Yellow Emperor in the 26th century BCE.

3. Ancient Indian texts

* < Jaya > and < Bharata> early versions of the Hindu epic Mahabharata

* “Barhaspatya-sutras”, the foundational text of the Carvaka school of philosophy. The text probably dates from the final centuries BC, with only fragmentary quotations of it surviving.

4. Manichaean texts

* < Arzhang > the holy book of Manichaeism.

5. Lost Biblical texts

* < Hexapla > a compilation of the Old Testament by Origen.

– Lost texts referenced in the Old Testament :

< Book of the Covenant > (may be the Covenant Code)
< Book of the Wars of the Lord >
< Book of Jasher >
< Manner of the Kingdom >
< Acts of Solomon >
< Chronicles of the Kings of Israel >
< Chronicles of the Kings of Judah >
< Book of the Kings of Israel >
< Annals of King David >
< Book of Samuel the Seer >
< Book of Nathan the Prophet >
< Book of Gad the Seer >
< History of Nathan the Prophet >
< Prophecy of Ahijah >
< Visions of Iddo the Seer >
< Book of Shemaiah the Prophet >
< Iddo Genealogies >
< Story of the Prophet Iddo >
< Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel >
< Book of Jehu >
< Story of the Book of Kings >
< Acts of Uziah >
< Acts of the Kings of Israel >
< Sayings of the Seers >
< Laments for Josiah >
< Book of the Chronicles >
< Chronicles of King Ahasuerus >
< Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia >

– Lost works referenced in the New Testament :
< Epistle to Corinth >
< Epistle from Laodicea to the Colossians >

– Lost Works Pertaining to Jesus :

(These works are generally 2nd century and later; some would be considered reflective of proto-orthodox Christianity, and others would be heterodox.)

<Gospel of Eve>
<Gospel of Judas> a fragmentary coptic codex rediscovered and translated, 2006
<Gospel of Mani>
<Gospel of Matthias>
<Gospel of Perfection>
<Gospel of the Four Heavenly Realms>
<Gospel of the Hebrews>
<Gospel of the Seventy>
<Gospel of the Twelve>
<Memoria Apostolorum>
<Secret Gospel of Mark>

6. 2nd Century

* Hegesippus’ <Hypomnemata> (“Memoirs”) in five books, and a history of the Christian church.

* The Gospel of the Lord compiled by Marcion of Sinope to support his interpretation of Christianity. Marcion’s writings were suppressed although a portion of them have been recreated from the works that were used to denounce them.

* Papias’ <Exposition of the Oracles of the Lord> in five books, mentioned by Eusebius.

7. 3rd Century

* Various works of Tertullian. Some fifteen works in Latin or Greek are lost, some as recently as the 9th century (“De Paradiso”, “De superstitione saeculi”, “De carne et anima” were all extant in the now damaged “Codex Agobardinus” in 814 AD).

8. 5th Century

* Sozomen’s history of the Christian church, from the Ascension of Jesus to the defeat of Licinius in 323, in twelve books.

9. 12th Century

* Four works by Gerald of Wales:
“Duorum speculum”
“Vita sancti Karadoci” (“Life of St Caradoc”)
“De fidei fructu fideique defectu”
“Cambriae mappa”

* The Old French romances André de France and Gui d’Excideuil.

10. 14th Century

* “Inventio Fortunata” – a 14th-century description of the geography of the North Pole.

* “Itinerarium” – a geography book by Jacobus Cnoyen of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, cited by Gerardus Mercator

* “Res gestae Arturi britanni” (The Deeds of Arthur of Britain) – book cited by Jacobus Cnoyen

* “Of the Wreched Engendrynge of Mankynde”, “Origenes upon the Maudeleyne”, the bulk of the “Canterbury Tales” and “The book of the Leoun” – four works by Geoffrey Chaucer.

11. 15th Century

* Yongle Encyclopedia (literally “The Great Canon” [or “Vast Documents”] of the Yongle Era). It was one of the world’s earliest, and the then largest, encyclopaedia commissioned by Emperor Yongle of Ming Dynasty in 1403, completed about 1408. About 400 chapters (less than 4%) of the original survive today.

* François Villon’s poem “The Romance of the Devil’s Fart.”

12. 16th Century

* <Nigramansir> – “A Moral Interlude and a Pithy” by John Skelton. Printed 1504. A copy seen in 1759 in Chichester has since vanished.

*    <Ur-Hamlet> – an earlier version of the play “Hamlet” predating William Shakespeare’s version, author believed to be Thomas Kyd.

*    <Love’s Labour’s Won> play by William Shakespeare.

*    <The Ocean to Cynthia> a poem by Sir Walter Raleigh of which only fragments are      known.

*    <Luís de Camões> philosophic work “The Parnasum of Luís Vaz” is lost.

*    <The Isle of Dogs> (1597), a play by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson.

*    <Phaethon> a play by Thomas Dekker, mentioned in Philip Henslowe’s diary, 1597.

*    <Hot Anger Soon Cold> a play by Henry Chettle, Henry Porter and Ben Jonson; mentioned in Philip Henslowe’s diary, August 1598.

*    <The Stepmother’s Tragedy> a play by Henry Chettle and Thomas Dekker; mentioned in Philip Henslowe’s diary, August 1599.

* <Black Batman of the North,Part II> a play by Henry Chettle and Robert Wilson; mentioned in Henslowe’s diary in April 1598.

13. 17th Century

* <The History of Cardenio> play by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher (1613)

*     <Keep the Widow Waking> play by John Ford and John Webster (1624)

*    <El Manuscrito de Astorga> written by one Juan de Bergara in 1624. Dealt with fly fishing, has been in the possession of Francisco Franco.

*    <Claudio Monteverdi> composed at least eighteen operas, but only three (“L’Orfeo”, “L’incoronazione di Poppea”, and “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria”) and the famous aria, “Lamento”, from his second opera L’Arianna have survived.

*    <Lost haikus> of Ihara Saikaku.

*    Jean Racine’s first play, <Amasie> (1660) is lost.

*    John Milton wrote nearly two acts of a tragedy called <Adam Unparadiz’d> which was then lost.

*    Lost works of Molière:

A translation of “De Rerum Natura” by Lucretius.
“Le Docteur amoureux” (play, 1658)
“Gros-René, petit enfant” (play, 1659)
“Le Docteur Pédant” (play, 1660)
“Les Trois Docteurs” (play, ca. 1660)
“Gorgibus dans le sac” (play, 1661)
“Le Fagotier” (play, 1661)
“Le Fin Lourdaut” (play attributed, 1668)

* Lost works of Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh include;
“Ughdair Ereann” – fragments survive.

14. 18th Century

* “Lady Mary Wortley Montagu”‘s journal was burnt by her daughter on the grounds that it contained much scandal and satire.

*    Edward Gibbon burned the manuscript of his “History of the Liberty of the Swiss”.

*    “The Green-Room Squabble or a Battle Royal between the Queen of Babylon and the Daughter of Darius” a 1756 play by Samuel Foote is lost.

*    Numerous works by J. S. Bach, notably at least two large-scale Passions, and many cantatas, are irretrievably lost.

*    Mozart and Salieri are known to have composed together a cantata for voice and piano called “Per la ricuperata salute di Ophelia” which was celebrating the return to stage of the singer Nancy Storace, and which has been lost, although it had been printed by Artaria in 1785.

*    Beethoven’s 1793 ‘Ode to Joy’, which was later incorporated into his ninth Symphony

*    Haydn’s “Double Bass Concerto,” which of only the first two measures survive, the rest burned and destroyed. Supposedly a copy of it may exist somewhere, according to many different speculations.

* Personal letters between George Washington and his wife Martha Washington; all but three destroyed by Mrs. Washington after his death in 1799.

15. 19th Century

* “Memoirs” of Lord Byron – destroyed by his literary executors led by John Murray on 17 May 1824. The decision to destroy Byron’s manuscript journals, which was opposed only by Thomas Moore, was made in order to protect his reputation. The two volumes of memoirs were dismembered and burnt in the fireplace at Murray’s office.

*     “The Scented Garden” by Sir Richard Francis Burton – manuscript of a new translation from Arabic of The Perfumed Garden, was burnt by his widow, Lady Isabel Burton née Arundel, along with other papers.

*      A large number of manuscripts and longer poems by William Blake were burnt soon after his death by Mr. Frederick Tatham.

*     Parts two and three of “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Gogol – burnt by Gogol at the instigation of the priest Father Matthew Konstantinovskii.

*     At least four complete volumes and around seven pages of text are missing from Lewis Carroll’s 13 diaries, destroyed by his family for reasons frequently debated.

*    The son of the Marquis de Sade had all of de Sade’s unpublished manuscripts burned after de Sade’s death in 1814; this included the immense multi-volume work “Les Journées de Florbelle”.

*    A large section of the manuscript for Mary Shelley’s ‘Valperga’ was lost in the mail to the publisher, and Shelley was forced to rewrite it.

*    Franz Liszt claimed to have written a manual of piano technique for the Geneva Conservatoire. Many early works, including 3 sonatas and 2 concertos for piano, are also believed to be lost due to the want of a fixed domicile.

*    Gerard Manley Hopkins burned all his early poetry on entering the priesthood.

*    In the “Suspiria de Profundis” of Thomas de Quincey, 18 of 32 pieces have not survived.

*    In 1871, Gustave Flaubert buried a box of letters and papers as war approached; the box was never recovered.

*    A schoolmate of Arthur Rimbaud confessed he lost a notebook of poems by the famous poet. His “La Chasse spirituelle” which Verlaine claimed was his masterpiece, is also lost forever.

*    The first draft of Thomas Carlyle’s ‘The French Revolution: A History’ was sent to John Stuart Mill, whose maid mistakenly burned it, forcing Carlyle to rewrite it from scratch.

*    Joseph Smith’s translation of the ‘Book of Lehi’ from the ‘Mormon Golden Plates’ was either hidden, destroyed, or modified by Lucy Harris, the wife of transcriber Martin Harris. Whatever their fate, the pages were not returned to Joseph Smith and declared “lost.” Smith did not recreate the translation.

*    Letters written by Felix Mendelssohn seem to suggest that he wrote a cello concerto. It was supposedly lost when the only copy of it fell off the coach that was carrying it to its dedicatee.

*    Various works of Johannes Brahms. Brahms was a perfectionist who destroyed many of his own early works, including a violin sonata. He claimed once to have destroyed 20 string quartets before he issued his official First in 1873.

*    ‘Isle of the Cross’ Herman Melville’s followup to the unsuccessful “Pierre” was rejected by his publishers and has subsequently been lost.

*    Robert Louis Stevenson burned his first completed draft of “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” after his wife criticized the work. Stevenson wrote and published a revised version.

*    Abraham Lincoln’s Lost Speech, given on May 29, 1856, in Bloomington, Illinois. Traditionally regarded as lost because it was so engaging that reporters neglected to take notes, the speech is believed to have been an impassioned condemnation of slavery. It is possible the text was deliberately “lost” due to its controversial content.

*    L. Frank Baum’s theatre in Richburg, New York burned to the ground. Among the manuscripts of Baum’s original plays known to have been lost are “The Mackrummins”,”Matches” (which was being performed the night of the fire), ‘The Queen of Killarney’, ‘Kilmourne’, or ‘O’Connor’s Dream’, and the complete musical score for ‘The Maid of Arran’, which survives only in commercial song sheets, which include six of the eight songs and no instrumental music.

*    Leon Trotsky describes the loss of an unfinished play manuscript (a collaboration with Sokolovsky) in his “My Life”, end of chapter 6 (sometime between 1896 and 1898).

*    “The Poor Man and the Lady” Thomas Hardy’s first novel (1867) was never published. After rejection by several publishers, he destroyed the manuscript.

*    George Gissing abandoned many novels and destroyed the incomplete manuscripts. He also completed at least three novels which went unpublished and have been lost.

* John P. Marquand wrote an early novel called Yellow ‘Ivory’ in collaboration with his friend W.A. Macdonald.

16. 20th Century

* The only known copies of the score of the 1903 Scott Joplin opera ‘A Guest of Honor’ were believed to be confiscated during a dispute between Joplin and the owner of a theatrical boarding house. The score was never recovered by Joplin and it is believed to be lost.

*    James Joyce’s play “A Brilliant Career” (which he burned) and the first half of his novel Stephen Hero (which may yet turn up)

*    Various parts of Daniel Paul Schreber’s “Memoirs of My Nervous Illness” (original German title “Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken”) (1903) was destroyed by his wife and doctor Flesching for protecting his reputation, which was mentioned by Sigmund Freud as highly important in his essay “The Schreber Case” (1911).

*    L. Frank Baum wrote four novels for adults that were never published and disappeared: ‘Our Marred Life and Johnson’ (1912), ‘The Mystery of Bonita’ (1914), and ‘Molly Oodle’ (1915). Baum’s son claimed that Baum’s wife burned these, but this was after being cut out of her will. Evidence that Baum’s publisher received these manuscripts survives. Also lost are Baum’s 1904 short stories “Mr. Rumple’s Chill” and “Bess of the Movies”, as well as his early plays “Kilmourne, or O’Connor’s Dream” (opened April 4, 1883) and “The Queen of Killarney” (1883).

*    In 1907, August Strindberg destroyed a play, ‘The Bleeding Hand’, immediately after writing it. He was in a bad mood at the time and commented in a letter that the piece was unusually harsh even for him.

*    The French composer Albéric Magnard’s house was set on fire by German soldiers in 1914. The fire destroyed Magnard’s unpublished scores, such as the orchestral score of his early opera ‘Yolande’, the orchestral score of ‘Guercoeur’ (the piano reduction had been published, and the orchestral score of the second act was extant) and a more recent song cycle.

*    “Text I” of ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ – a 250,000 word manuscript by T. E. Lawrence lost at Reading railway station in December 1919.

*    The Irish Public Records Office in Dublin was burnt by the IRA in 1922, destroying 1,000 years of state and religious archives.

*    In 1922, a suitcase with almost all of Ernest Hemingway’s work to date was stolen from a train compartment at the Gare de Lyon in Paris, from his wife. It included a partial WWI novel.

*    The novels ‘Tobold’ and ‘Theodor’ by Robert Walser are lost, possibly destroyed by the author, as is a third, unnamed novel. (1910–1921)

*    Symphony No. 8 (‘Sibelius’). Composer Jean Sibelius mysteriously destroyed his last symphony.

*    The original version of ‘Ultramarine’ by Malcolm Lowry was stolen from his publisher’s car in 1932, and the author had to reconstruct it.

*    ‘Yogananda’ Autobiography of a Yogi quotes extensively from Richard Wright’s travel diaries in 1935/6. Following Wright’s death they have become ‘lost’.

*    In a letter of 1938, George Orwell mentions an “anti-war pamphlet” that he had written earlier that year but could not get published. Not even the title of this pamphlet is known today. With the beginning of World War Two Orwell’s views on pacifism were to change radically, so he may well have destroyed the manuscript.

*    Lost papers and a possible unfinished novel by Isaac Babel, confiscated by the NKVD, May 1939.

*    ‘Manuscript of Efebos’ – a novel by Karol Szymanowski, destroyed in bombing of Warsaw, 1939.

*    Constant Lambert’s ballet Horoscope was being performed in the Netherlands in 1940, and the unpublished full score had to be left behind when German forces invaded that country. It was never recovered, and only nine individual numbers remain.

*    The German-language original of Arthur Koestler’s ‘Darkness at Noon’ was lost. Only the English translation by Daphne Hardy survived to be published.

*    Five volumes of poetry and a drama, all in manuscript, by Saint-John Perse were destroyed at his house outside Paris soon after he had gone into exile in the summer of 1940. The diplomat Alexis Léger (Perse’s real name) was a well-known and uncompromising anti-Nazi and his house was raided by German troops. The works had been written during his diplomat years, but Perse had decided not to publish any new writing until he had retired from diplomacy.

*    Walter Benjamin had a completed manuscript in his suitcase when he fled France and arrest by the Nazis in the summer of 1940. He committed suicide in Portbou, Spain on September 26, 1940 and the suitcase and contents disappeared.

*    In 1940 “The Magnet”, a popular British Boy’s paper, had to cease publication due to WWII paper shortage. At the time, at least four issues are known to have been already completed, but were never published, and got irrevocably lost during the war years.

*    There are reports that Bruno Schulz worked on a novel called ‘The Messiah’, but no trace of this manuscript survived his death (1942).

*    In 1944, just before the Warsaw Uprising, the Polish composer Andrzej Panufnik fled Warsaw leaving all his manuscripts behind. When he returned to his apartment in 1945, he discovered that his entire oeuvre had survived the widespread destruction, but had then been burnt on a bonfire by his landlady. The lost works included two symphonies and other orchestral works, as well as vocal and chamber compositions; Panufnik subsequently reconstructed some of them.

*    The novel ‘In Ballast to the White Sea’ by Malcolm Lowry, lost in a fire in 1945.

*    The novel ‘Wanderers of Night and poems’ of Daniil Andreev were destroyed in 1947 as “anti-Soviet literature” by the MGB.

*    Some pages of William Burroughs’s original ‘Naked Lunch’ were stolen.

*    Three early, unpublished novels by Philip K. Dick written in the 1950s are no longer extant: ‘A Time for George Stavros’, ‘Pilgrim on the Hill’, and ‘Nicholas and the Higs’.

*    The manuscript for Sylvia Plath’s unfinished second novel, provisionally titled ‘Double Exposure’, or ‘Double Take’, written 1962-63, disappeared some time before 1970.

*    There were known audio recordings of early performances by The Beatles, such as a song which featured Ringo Starr on drums before he was an “official” member. These tapes have thought to been taped over or destroyed.

*    Several pages of the original screenplay for Werner Herzog’s ‘Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes’ were reportedly thrown out of the window of a bus after one of his football team-mates threw up on them.

*    The screenplay for the proposed Dean Stockwell-Herb Berman film ‘After the Gold Rush’ is reportedly lost.

*    Diaries of Philip Larkin – burnt at his request after his death on 2 December 1985. Other private papers were kept, contrary to his instructions.

*    Stephen King wrote both a prologue and epilogue to ‘The Shining’ titled ‘Before The Play and After The Play’, respectively. The epilogue is reportedly lost.

* Hundreds of works by the Norwegian composer and pianist Geirr Tveitt were lost due to a house fire in 1970, when his house burned to the ground. Overall, about 4/5 of Tveitt’s production are now gone from that fire, which included symphonies, concertos, choral works, operas, and many piano works. Fortunately some copies, parts, and recordings of some of the works existed elsewhere.

17. Lost literary collections

* Chinese emperor ‘Qin Shi Huang’ (3rd century BCE) had most previously-existing books burned when he consolidated his power.

*    The ‘Library of Alexandria’, the largest library in existence during antiquity, was destroyed at some point in time between the Roman and Muslim conquests of Alexandria.

*    Aztec emperor ‘Itzcoatl’ (ruled 1427/8-1440) ordered the burning of all historical Aztec codices in an effort to develop a state-sanctioned Aztec history and mythology.

*    During the ‘Dissolution of the Monasteries’, many monastic libraries were destroyed. Worcester Abbey had 600 books at the time of the dissolution. Only six of them have survived intact to the present day. At the abbey of the Augustinian Friars at York, a library of 646 volumes was destroyed, leaving only three surviving books. Some books were destroyed for their precious bindings, others were sold off by the cartload, including irreplaceable early English works. It is believed that many of the earliest Anglo-Saxon manuscripts were lost at this time.

“A great nombre of them whych purchased those supertycyous mansyons, resrved of those lybrarye bokes, some to serve theyr jakes [i.e., as toilet paper], some to scoure candelstyckes, and some to rubbe their bootes. Some they solde to the grossers and soapsellers…” — John Bale, 1549

*    Many works of ‘Anglo-Saxon literature’, mostly unique and unpublished, were burned when a fire broke out in the Cotton library at Ashburnham House on 23 October 1731. Luckily, the only surviving manuscript of Beowulf survived the fire and was printed for the first time in 1815.

*    The burning of India’s ‘Nalanda’ Buddhist University by Muslim armies.

*    The ‘sacking of Bagdhad’ by the Mongols.

*    At least 27 ‘Maya codices’ were ceremonially destroyed by Diego de Landa (1524–1579), bishop of Yucatán, on 12 July 1562.

* The library of the ‘Hanlin Academy’, containing irreplaceable ancient Chinese manuscripts, was mostly destroyed in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion.

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Categories BOOKS,MUSIC , MOVIE , THEATRE, ARTISTS, and MUSICIANS.

“LOST BUT NOT FORGOTTEN” – 5. MISSING TREASURE

29 Aug

source : wikipedia.com

*This is an incomplete list of notable treasures that are currently lost or missing*

LIST Of MISSING TREASURE

Ark of the Covenant (586 B.C)

The Ark of the Covenant, also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in the Book of Exodus as containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. According to some traditional interpretations of the Book of Exodus, Book of Numbers, and the Letter to the Hebrews the Ark also contained Aaron’s rod, a jar of manna and the first Torah scroll as written by Moses; however, the first of the Books of Kings says that at the time of King Solomon, the Ark contained only the two Tablets of the Law. According to the Book of Exodus, the Ark was built at the command of God, in accordance with the instructions given to Moses on Mount Sinai.
God was said to have communicated with Moses “from between the two cherubim” on the Ark’s cover.

The biblical account relates that during the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, the Ark was carried by the priests some 2,000 cubits in advance of the people and their army, or host. When the Ark was borne by priests into the bed of the Jordan, water in the river separated, opening a pathway for the entire host to pass through (Josh. 3:15-16; 4:7-18). The city of Jericho was taken with no more than a shout after the Ark of the Covenant was paraded for seven days around its wall by seven priests sounding seven trumpets of rams’ horns (Josh. 6:4-20). When carried, the Ark was always wrapped in a veil, in skins and a blue cloth, and was carefully concealed, even from the eyes of the priests who carried it. There are no contemporary extra-biblical references to the Ark.

In the Roman Catholic Church, the Blessed Virgin Mary is sometimes allegorically referred to as the Ark of the Covenant, in that she bore Jesus Christ in similarity to the original tangible contents of the Ark, as cited in the Book of Revelations and the Litany of Loreto.

– Ark of the Covenant – Gold plated vessel, 2½ × 1½ × 1½ cubits (as 2 1/2×1 1/2×1 1/2 royal cubits or 1.31×0.79×0.79 m). Historicity disputed.

* Since its disappearance from the Biblical narrative, there have been a number of claims of having discovered or of having possession of the Ark, and several possible places have been suggested for its location :

Mount Nebo

Ethiopia

Southern Africa

Europe
– Chartres Cathedral, France
– Rennes-le-Château, then to America
– Rome
– United Kingdom
– Ireland

Egypt
– Tutankhamun’s tomb

Copper Scroll treasures (circa 25–75)

The Copper Scroll (3Q15) is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Cave 3 near Khirbet Qumran, but differs significantly from the others. Whereas the other scrolls are written on parchment or papyrus, this scroll is written on metal: copper mixed with about 1 percent tin. Unlike the others, it is not a literary work, but a list of locations at which various items of gold and silver are buried or hidden. It differs from the other scrolls in its Hebrew (closer to the language of the Mishnah than to the literary Hebrew of the other scrolls, though 4QMMT shares some language characteristics), its orthography (i.e., its spelling), palaeography (forms of letters) and date (c.50-100 AD, possibly overlapping the latest of the other Qumran manuscripts).

Parts of The Copper Scroll are housed at the Jordan Museum in Amman.

– The text is an inventory of 64 locations; 63 of which are treasures of gold and silver, which have been estimated in the tons. Tithing vessels are also listed among the entries, along with other vessels, and three locations featured scrolls. One entry apparently mentions priestly vestments. The final listing points to a duplicate document with additional details. That other document has not been found.

The following English translation of the opening lines of the first column of the Copper Scroll shows the basic structure of each of the entries in the scroll. The structure is 1) general location, 2) specific location, often with distance to dig, and 3) what to find.

1:1 In the ruin that is in the valley of Acor, under
1:2 the steps, with the entrance at the East,
1:3 a distance of forty cubits: a strongbox of silver and its vessels
1:4 with a weight of seventeen talents. KeN

(The three letters at the end are Greek.)

There is a minority view that the Cave of Letters might have contained one of the listed treasures, and, if so, artifacts from this location may have been recovered. Although the scroll was made of alloyed copper in order to last, the locations are written as if the reader would have an intimate knowledge of obscure references. For example, consider column two, verses 1-3, “In the salt pit that is under the steps: forty-one talents of silver. In the cave of the old washer’s chamber, on the third terrace: sixty-five ingots of gold.” As noted above, the listed treasure has been estimated in the tons. There are those who understand the text to be enumerating the vast treasure that was ‘stashed,’ where the Romans could not find it. Others still suggest that the listed treasure is that which Bar Kochba hid during the Second Revolt. Although it is difficult to estimate the exact amount, “it was estimated in 1960 that the total would top $1,000,000 U.S”

Kusanagi (1185)

Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is a legendary Japanese sword and one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan. It was originally called Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi (“Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven”) but its name was later changed to the more popular Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (“Grass Cutting Sword”).

Legends and Folklore

* The history of the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi extends into legend. According to Kojiki, the god Susanoo encountered a grieving family of kunitsukami (“gods of the land”) headed by Ashinazuchi in Izumo province. When Susanoo inquired of Ashinazuchi, he told him that his family was being ravaged by the fearsome Yamata-no-Orochi, an eight-headed serpent of Koshi, who had consumed seven of the family’s eight daughters and that the creature was coming for his final daughter, Kushinada-hime. Susanoo investigated the creature, and after an abortive encounter he returned with a plan to defeat it. In return, he asked for Kushinada-hime’s hand in marriage, which was agreed. Transforming her temporarily into a comb (one interpreter reads this section as “using a comb he turns into [masquerades as] Kushinada-hime”) to have her company during battle, he detailed his plan into steps.
He instructed the preparation of eight vats of sake (rice wine) to be put on individual platforms positioned behind a fence with eight gates. The monster took the bait and put one of its heads through each gate. With this distraction, Susanoo attacked and slew the beast (with his sword Worochi no Ara-masa). He chopped off each head and then proceeded to the tails. In the fourth tail, he discovered a great sword inside the body of the serpent which he called Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, which he presented to the goddess Amaterasu to settle an old grievance.

Generations later, in the reign of the Twelfth Emperor, Keiko, Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi was given to the great warrior, Yamato Takeru as part of a pair of gifts given by his aunt, Yamato-hime the Shrine Maiden of Ise Shrine, to protect her nephew in times of peril.
These gifts came in handy when Yamato Takeru was lured onto an open grassland during a hunting expedition by a treacherous warlord. The lord had fiery arrows fired to ignite the grass and trap Yamato Takeru in the field so that he would burn to death. He also killed the warrior’s horse to prevent his escape. Desperately, Yamato Takeru used the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi to cut back the grass and remove fuel from the fire, but in doing so, he discovered that the sword enabled him to control the wind and cause it to move in the direction of his swing. Taking advantage of this magic, Yamato Takeru used his other gift, fire strikers, to enlarge the fire in the direction of the lord and his men, and he used the winds controlled by the sword to sweep the blaze toward them. In triumph, Yamato Takeru renamed the sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (lit. “Grasscutter Sword”) to commemorate his narrow escape and victory. Eventually, Yamato Takeru married and later fell in battle with a monster, after ignoring his wife’s advice to take the sword with him.

* Although the sword is mentioned in the Kojiki, this book is a collection of Japanese myths and is not considered a historical document. The first reliable historical mention of the sword is in the Nihonshoki. Although the Nihonshoki also contains mythological stories that are not considered reliable history, it records some events that were contemporary or nearly contemporary to its writing, and these sections of the book are considered historical. In the Nihonshoki, the Kusanagi was removed from the Imperial palace in 688, and moved to Atsuta Shrine after the sword was blamed for causing Emperor Temmu to fall ill. Along with the jewel (Yasakani no Magatama) and the mirror (Yata no Kagami ), it is one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan, the sword representing the virtue of valor.

Kusanagi is allegedly kept at Atsuta Shrine but is not available for public display, and its existence cannot be confirmed. During the Edo period, a Shinto priest, claimed to have seen the sword. According to him, the sword was about 84 cm long, shaped like calamus, fashioned in a white metallic color, and well maintained. Another record claims that this priest died from the curse and the power of the sword, but this is most likely a story that was spread to emphasize its power. Recently, Japan’s nationally run broadcasting station, NHK, went to Atsuta Shrine to videotape the sword but were turned away.

* In The Tale of the Heike, a collection of oral stories transcribed in 1371, the sword is lost at sea after the defeat of the Heike clan in the Battle of Dan-no-ura, a naval battle that ended in the defeat of the Heike clan forces and the child Emperor Antoku at the hands of Minamoto no Yoshitsune. In the tale, upon hearing of the Navy’s defeat, the Emperor’s grandmother led the Emperor and his entourage to commit suicide by drowning in the waters of the strait, taking with her two of the three Imperial Regalia: the sacred jewel and the sword Kusanagi. The sacred mirror was recovered in extremis when one of the ladies-in-waiting was about to jump with it into the sea Although the sacred jewel is said to have been found in its casket floating on the waves, Kusanagi was lost forever. Although written about historical events, The Tale of the Heike is a collection of epic poetry passed down orally and written down nearly 200 years after the actual events, so its reliability as a historical document is questionable.

* Another story holds that the sword was reportedly stolen again in the sixth century by a monk from Silla. However, his ship allegedly sank at sea, allowing the sword to wash ashore at Ise, where it was recovered by Shinto priests.

Due to the refusal of Shinto priests to show the sword, and the rather sketchy nature of its historical references, the current state of or even the existence at all of the sword as a historical artifact cannot be confirmed. The last appearance of the sword was in 1989 when Emperor Akihito ascended to the throne, the sword (including the jewel and the Emperor’s two seals) were shrouded in packages.

Dracula’s Treasure (1462–1476)

Treasure vault of Snagov monastery lost when Vlad Dracula’s brother Radu took it in 1462, when Turks took it in 1463, or after Vlad’s death in 1476. Buried, tossed in lake, or transferred elsewhere.

La Noche Triste treasure (1520)

Gold artwork looted from the palace of Moctezuma II. Occurred during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.

Polish Crown Jewels (1795)

The only surviving original piece of the Polish Crown Jewels from the time of the Piast dynasty is the ceremonial sword – Szczerbiec. It is currently on display along with other preserved royal items in the Wawel Royal Castle Museum, Kraków.

Several royal crowns were made, including several during the 16th Century, a “Hungarian Crown”, a “Swedish Crown” used by the Vasa kings, and others that were subsequently lost or destroyed. The crown jewels used by the Saxon kings, and some remainders of older Polish monarchs which were appropriated by king August II, also the Elector of Saxony; like a cup of Queen Jadwiga so-called roztruchan, and the magnificent scale armour, so-called karacena, of King Jan III Sobieski are today on display in the Grünes Gewolbe and the Rüstkammer in Dresden, Germany.

– According to an inventory of the State Treasury at the Wawel performed in 1633 by the Jerzy Ossolinski, Great Crown Chancellor the Crown Regalia (Jewels) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (kept in 5 chests) consists of:

the Crown of Boleslaw I the Brave, according to a legend handed over to the first Polish monarch by Emperor Otto III, made for Wladyslaw I the Elbow-high

the so-called “Queens Crown” made for Jadwiga of Kalisz

the so-called “Hungarian Crown” made for John II Sigismund Zápolya according to Crown of Saint Stephen

the so-called “Homagial Crown” for receiving homages, made for Wladyslaw II Jagiello

the so-called “Funebralis Crown” intended for funeral ceremonies of the Polish monarchs, made for Stephen Báthory

three sceptres and three silver orbs

a silver chain with the relic of the holy cross (Crux cum ligno Vitae)

the Ruthenian crosses and relics

Latin Bible copied on parchment

rhinoceros horn (Cornus Rynocerotis)

Szczerbiec, the coronation sword that was used in crowning ceremonies of most kings of Poland

Grunwald Swords, two Teutonic Order swords received at the Battle of Grunwald by King Wladyslaw Jagiello

the sword of Boleslaw the Bold

the sword of Sigismund I the Old

three hats fringed with pearls

a large chest with jewel boxes, which contained a large ruby, a 0.94 carats (190 mg) diamond, 200 diamonds, a large emerald, among others.

Also a private treasury of the Vasas (kept at the Royal Castle in Warsaw) consisted of:

the “Swedish Crown” made for King Sigismund II Augustus

the “Muscovy Crown” made in about 1610 for Prince Wladyslaw Vasa’s coronation as a Tsar of Russia

a silver White Eagle heraldic base for the royal crown (pure silver, partly gilded, 89 cm heigh); the eagle was created for King John II Casimir in Augsburg by Abraham Drentwett and Heinrich Mannlich in about 1666; presented in the times of a military weakness of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Deluge and lost war against the Ottoman Empire to Tsar of Russia by King Michael Korybut.

In 1697 a Freiburg’s goldsmith Johann Friedrich Klemm executed a replacement for the Polish Crown Jewels, known as the Crown of Augustus II the Strong and intended for his coronation as a King of Poland. It was never used however, because of two monks, who broke into the State Treasury the Wawel Castle and stole the original regalia.
The Augustus II’s crown is kept in the Dresden Armory.
All of the original crown regalia were looted by the Germans (except for the “Muscovy Crown”) in 1795 after the Third Partition of the Commonwealth and destroyed on the order of Frederick William III of Prussia in March 1809 (except for the Szczerbiec).
In 1925 Polish Government purchased the silver regalia of King Augustus III and Queen Maria Josepha in Vienna for $ 35,000 (175 000 zl). It consisted of 2 crowns, 2 sceptres and 2 orbs made in about 1733. The original Crown Regalia were hidden by Franciszek Maksymilian Ossolinski during the War of the Polish Succession. The jewels were exhibited in Warsaw till 1939 and in 1940 they were stolen by German forces. Later they were found by the Soviet troops in Germany and sent to the USSR where they remained until 1960, when they were returned to Poland. Today are deposited in the National Museum in Warsaw.

Treasure of Lima (1820)

Gold, silver and jewellery stolen from the Spanish in 1820. The treasure is thought to be buried on Cocos Island in Costa Rica and it is estimated to be worth £160 million.

Benito’s treasure (1821)

Benito “Bloody Sword” Bonito is the subject of a legend about a pirate who raided the west coast of the Americas. His career began around 1818 (supposedly because he could not sing) but from there on sources differ. According to one legend his ship was boarded by a British man-o’-war after Bonito exited Port Phillip Bay after hiding the so called “Lost Loot of Lima” sometime in 1821. He was given a drumhead trial and hanged.
Another version of Benito’s legend ends with Benito committing suicide by putting his pistol to his head rather than allowing himself to be captured by British pirate hunters. Yet another states that Benito was betrayed by two British crewmen he had taken on previously.

These legends of Bonito Benito are sometimes confused with those of the “Great Treasure of Lima” given over to captain William Thompson to guard at sea from José de San Martín, a treasure Thompson made off with and hid on Cocos Island. According to some accounts, both treasures are buried on Cocos Island.

– According to legend the “captain’s cut” of Benito’s treasure, valued at over $300 million today, is still hidden somewhere on or around Queenscliff, Victoria.

Popular Australian legends relate that Benito hid his treasure in a cave near Queenscliff, Victoria (Australia) which was sealed by explosives and a later earthquake. Many excavations have taken place in the region without the treasure being uncovered.

Confederate gold (circa 1865)

Confederate gold refers to the hidden caches of gold lost after the American Civil War. Millions of dollars worth of gold was lost or unaccounted for after the civil war and has been the speculation of many historians and treasure hunters. Allegedly, some of the Confederate treasury was hidden in order to wait for the rising again of the South and at other times simply so that the Union would not gain possession.

George Trenholm, who was Treasurer of the Confederate States of America for the last year of the American Civil War, was arrested after the war and accused of making off with millions in Confederate assets.

Tokugawa’s buried treasure (circa 1868)

A legendary treasure allegedly buried in Mt. Akagi by Tokugawa shogunate (disputed).

Irish Crown Jewels (1907)

The Irish Crown Jewels were the heavily-jewelled star and badge regalia of the Sovereign and Grand Master of the Order of St. Patrick. They were stolen from Dublin Castle in 1907 along with the collars of five knights of the Order. The theft was never solved and the jewels never recovered.

The Order of St. Patrick was an order of knights established in 1783 by George III as King of Ireland to be an Irish equivalent of the English Order of the Garter and the Scottish Order of the Thistle. The British monarch, as monarch first of Ireland and later of the United Kingdom, was the Sovereign of the Order; and the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was the Grand Master in the absence of the Sovereign. The insignia were worn by the Sovereign at the investiture of new Knights as members of the Order, and by the Grand Master on other formal ceremonial occasions.
The original regalia of the Sovereign were only slightly more opulent than the insignia of an ordinary Knight Member of the Order. These were replaced in 1831 by new ones presented by William IV as part of a revision of the Order’s structure, and containing 394 precious stones taken from the English Crown Jewels of Queen Charlotte and the Order of the Bath star of her husband George III. On the badge of Saint Patrick’s blue enamel, the green shamrock was of emeralds and the red Saint Patrick’s Saltire of rubies; the motto of the Order was in pink diamonds and the encrustation was of Brazilian diamonds of the first water. Notices issued after the theft described the jewels thus :

– A Diamond Star of the Grand Master of the Order of St. Patrick composed of brilliants (Brazilian stones) of the purest water, 4?? by 4?¼ inches, consisting of eight points, four greater and four lesser, issuing from a centre enclosing a cross of rubies and a trefoil of emeralds surrounding a sky blue enamel circle with words, “Quis Separabit MDCCLXXXIII.” in rose diamonds engraved on back. Value about £14,000.

A Diamond Badge of the Grand Master of the Order of St. Patrick set in silver containing a trefoil in emeralds on a ruby cross surrounded by a sky blue enamelled circle with “Quis Separabit MDCCLXXXIII.” in rose diamonds surrounded by a wreath of trefoils in emeralds, the whole enclosed by a circle of large single Brazilian stones of the finest water, surmounted by a crowned harp in diamonds and loop, also in Brazilian stones. Total size of oval 3 by 2?? inches; height 5?? inches. Value £16,000.

When not being worn or cleaned, the insignia of the Sovereign and those of deceased Knights were in the custody of the Ulster King of Arms, the senior Irish officer of arms, and kept in a bank vault. The designation “Crown Jewels” was first applied to the star and badge regalia of the Sovereign in a 1905 revision of the Order’s statutes. The label “Irish Crown Jewels” was publicised by newspapers after their theft.

* In 1903, the jewels were transferred to a safe, which was to be placed in the newly constructed strongroom in Dublin Castle beside the Ulster King of Arms’ office. The new safe was too large for the doorway to the strongroom, and Arthur Vicars, the Ulster King of Arms, instead stored it in his office. Seven latch keys to the door of the Office of Arms were held by Vicars and his staff, and two keys to the safe containing the insignia were both in the custody of Vicars. Vicars was known to regularly get drunk on overnight duty and he once awoke to find the jewels around his neck. It is not known whether or not this was a prank or a practice for the actual theft.
The insignia were last worn by the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Aberdeen, on 15 March 1907, at a function to mark Saint Patrick’s Day on March 17. They were last known to be in the safe on 11 June, when Vicars showed them to a visitor to his office. The jewels were discovered missing on 6 July 1907, four days before the start of a visit to the Irish International Exhibition by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, at which was planned the investiture of Bernard FitzPatrick, 2nd Baron Castletown into the Order. The theft is reported to have angered the King, but the visit went ahead. However, the investiture ceremony was cancelled. Also stolen were the collars of five Knight Members of the Order: four living (the Marquess of Ormonde and Earls of Howth, of Enniskillen, and of Mayo) and one deceased (Richard Boyle, 9th Earl of Cork). These were valued at £1,050.

A police investigation was conducted by the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP). Posters issued by the DMP depicted and described the missing jewels. Detective Chief Inspector John Kane of Scotland Yard arrived on 12 July to assist. His report, never released, is said to have named the culprit and been suppressed by the RIC. Vicars refused to resign his position, and similarly refused to appear at a Viceregal Commission into the theft held from 10 January 1908. Vicars argued for a public Royal Commission instead, which would have had power to subpoena witnesses. He publicly accused his second in command, Francis Shackleton, of the theft. Kane explicitly denied to the Commission that Shackleton, brother of the explorer Ernest Shackleton, was involved. Shackleton was exonerated in the Commission’s report, and Vicars was found to have “not exercise[d] due vigilance or proper care as the custodian of the regalia.” Vicars was compelled to resign, as were all the staff in his personal employ.

Rumours and theories

* Various theories circulated in the aftermath of the theft, with Irish nationalists alleging homosexual orgies among the staff at Dublin Castle. In the House of Commons in August 1907, Patrick O’Brien blamed “loyal and patriotic Unionist criminals”, Lord Haddo, the son of the Lord Lieutenant, was alleged by some newspapers to have been involved in the theft; Augustine Birrell, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, stated in the Commons that Haddo had been in Great Britain throughout the time period within which the theft took place. In 1912 and 1913 Laurence Ginnell suggested that the police investigation had established the identity of the thief, that his report had been suppressed to avoid scandal, and that the jewels were “at present within the reach of the Irish Government awaiting the invention of some plausible method of restoring them without getting entangled in the Criminal Law”.In an adjournment debate in 1912 he alleged :

” The police charged with collecting evidence in connection with the disappearance of the Crown jewels from Dublin Castle in 1907 collected evidence inseparable from it of criminal debauchery and sodomy being committed in the castle by officials, Army officers, and a couple of nondescripts of such position that their conviction and exposure would have led to an upheaval from which the Chief Secretary shrank. In order to prevent that he suspended the operation of the Criminal Law, and appointed a whitewashing commission with the result for which it was appointed. “

His speech was curtailed when a quorum of 40 MPs was not present in the chamber. Walter Vavasour Faber also asked about a cover-up; Edward Legge supported this theory.
After Francis Shackleton was imprisoned in 1914 for passing a cheque stolen from a widow, Earl Winterton asked for the judicial inquiry demanded by Vicars.

On 23 November 1912, the Daily Mail alleged that Vicars had allowed a woman reported to be his mistress to obtain a copy to the key to the safe and that she had fled to Paris with the jewels. In July 1913 Vicars sued the paper for libel; it admitted that the story was completely baseless and that the woman in question did not exist; Vicars was awarded damages of £5,000. Vicars left nothing in his will to his half-brother Pierce Charles de Lacy O’Mahony, on the grounds that Mahony had repudiated a promise to recompense Vicars for the loss of income caused by his resignation.

Another theory was that the Irish Republican Brotherhood had smuggled the jewels to the United States.
A 1927 memo of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, released in the 1970s, stated that W. T. Cosgrave “understands that the Castle jewels are for sale and that they could be got for £2,000 or £3,000.”

A 2002 book suggests the jewels were stolen as a Unionist plot to embarrass the Liberal government, and later secretly returned to the Royal Family.

Eight lost Imperial Fabergé eggs (1922 or later)

1886 – The Hen with Sapphire Pendant egg
1888 – The Cherub with Chariot egg
1889 – The Nécessaire egg
1896 – The Alexander III Portraits egg
1897 – The Mauve egg
1902 – The Empire Nephrite egg
1903 – The Royal Danish egg
1909 – The Alexander III Commemorative egg

The Fabergé eggs are one of a limited number of jeweled eggs created by Peter Carl Fabergé and his company from 1885 to 1917. The most famous of the eggs are the ones made for the Russian Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II as Easter gifts for their wives and mothers; these are often referred to as the ‘Imperial’ Fabergé eggs. Approximately 50 eggs were made, and 42 have survived. Another two eggs were planned for Easter 1918, but not delivered due to the Russian Revolution.

Following the Russian Revoluton, the Fabergé family left Russia. The Fabergé trademark has been sold several times since, and several companies have subsequently retailed egg-related merchandise using the Fabergé name. The trademark is currently owned by Fabergé Limited, which makes egg-themed jewellery.

The Just Judges (1934)

The Just Judges or The Righteous Judges is the lower left panel of the Ghent Altarpiece, by Jan Van Eyck or his brother Hubert Van Eyck, (145 × 51 cm) oil on oak.

As part of the Ghent altarpiece, it was displayed at the Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium, until stolen during the night of 10 April 1934, possibly by the Belgian Arsène Goedertier (Lede, 23 December 1876 – Dendermonde, 25 November 1934).
The panel was removed from the frame, apparently with care, leaving the other panels undamaged. In the empty space was left a note, written in French, with the words, “Taken from Germany by the Treaty of Versaile”, a reference to the fact that the altarpiece had been returned to the Ghent only a decade earlier after having been moved to Berlin during World War I. On 30 April, the Bishop of Ghent received a ransom demand for one million Belgian francs, to which the Belgium minister refused to agree. A second letter was delivered in May and at the time the Belgium government took on the negotiations with the thief on the pretext that as national treasures, the diocese ownership was secondary to the nation. Correspondence continued through October between the thief and the government, with the exchange of at least 11 letters.

On 25 November 1934 the thief revealed on his deathbed that he was the only one who knew where the masterpiece was hidden, and that he would take the secret to his grave. Although several people have claimed to know its whereabouts, the painting has never been recovered and is now believed to be destroyed. The panel was replaced in 1945 by a copy by Belgian copyist Jef Vanderveken.

It is believed the panel showed portraits of several contemporary figures such as Philip the Good, and the artists themselves with Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck both possibly shown in the now lost panel.

The panel is a prominent symbol in the novel The Fall (1956) by Albert Camus. Its protagonist, Jean-Baptiste Clamence, claims to have found the painting in a bar called “Mexico City”, and his secret withholding of the painting empowers him, he feels, in his newfound role of “judge-penitent”.

Royal Casket (1939)

The Royal Casket was a memorial created in 1800 by Izabela Czartoryska. The large wooden casket contained 73 precious relics that had once belonged to Polish royalty. The casket was inscribed: “Polish mementos assembled in 1800 by Izabela Czartoryska.” It once reposed in the Temple of the Sibyl at Pulawy.

– The relics contained in the casket included:

Portrait of Queen Constance of Austria in a silver dress made by King Sigismund III Vasa,

Silver rosary of Queen Marie Leszczynska,

Ivory box in a silver gilded frame of King John III Sobieski,

Gold watch of Queen Marie Casimire,

Gold snuff-box decorated with diamonds and an enamel miniature of King Stanislaw August Poniatowski,

Gold watch of King Augustus II,

Gold enameled chain of King John II Casimir,

Pectoral cross of King Sigismund the Old, made of red jasper in a gold frame with a gold chain,

Silver filigree cutlery of Prince Zygmunt Kazimierz,

Crystal watch in a gold frame of King Sigismund III Vasa,

Gold watch of King Stanislaw Leszczynski,

Gold enameled pendant with “A” monogram and a gold chain of Anna Jagiellon,

Gold filigree chain of Queen Ludwika Maria Gonzaga etc.

The casket survived all the confiscations after the collapses of the Polish national uprisings, because it had been moved to Krakow.

When World War II broke out, it was transported together with the rich collection of the Czartoryski Museum to Sieniawa and hidden in a repository, in a palace outbuilding, which was later bricked up. However, the German owner of a mill who worked for the Czartoryski family betrayed the hiding place to Wehrmacht soldiers, who entered Sieniawa on 14 September 1939. The soldiers broke into the palace and plundered the collection. They robbed the Royal Casket and distributed its contents among themselves. All the precious items were probably destroyed.

Peking Man (1941–1945)

Peking Man, Homo erectus pekinensis, is an example of Homo erectus. A group of fossil specimens was discovered in 1923–27 during excavations at Zhoukoudian (Chou K’ou-tien) near Beijing (written “Peking” before the adoption of the Pinyin romanization system), China. More recently, the finds have been dated from roughly 750,000 years ago, and a new 26Al/10Be dating suggests they are in the range of 680,000–780,000 years old.
Between 1929 and 1937, 15 partial crania, 11 mandibles, many teeth, some skeletal bones and large numbers of stone tools were discovered in the Lower Cave at Locality 1 of the Peking Man site at Zhoukoudian, near Beijing, in China. Their age is estimated to be between 500,000 and 300,000 years old. (A number of fossils of modern humans were also discovered in the Upper Cave at the same site in 1933.) The most complete fossils, all of which were calvariae, are :

– Skull II, discovered at Locus D in 1929 but only recognized in 1930, is an adult or adolescent with a brain size of 1030 cc. Skull II.jpg

Skull III, discovered at Locus E in 1929 is an adolescent or juvenile with a brain size of 915 cc. Skull III.jpg

Skulls X, XI and XII (sometimes called LI, LII and LIII) were discovered at Locus L in 1936. They are thought to belong to an adult man, an adult woman and a young adult, with brain sizes of 1225 cc, 1015 cc and 1030 cc respectively. Skull X.jpg Skull XI.jpg Skull XII.jpg

Skull V: two cranial fragments were discovered in 1966 which fit with (casts of) two other fragments found in 1934 and 1936 to form much of a skullcap with a brain size of 1140 cc. These pieces were found at a higher level, and appear to be more modern than the other skullcaps. Skull V.jpg

Most of the study on these fossils was done by Davidson Black until his death in 1934. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin took over until Franz Weidenreich replaced him and studied the fossils until he left China in 1941.

* The original fossils disappeared in 1941 during World War II, but excellent casts and descriptions remain.

Amber Room (circa 1945)

Removed from Catherine Palace, Saint Petersburg, by Germans during World War II and transported to Germany. Estimated (adjusted) value: $142 million.

Yamashita’s gold (circa 1945)

Yamashita’s gold, also referred to as the Yamashita treasure, is the name given to the alleged war loot stolen in Southeast Asia by Japanese forces during World War II and hidden in caves, tunnels and underground complexes in the Philippines. It is named for the Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita, nicknamed “The Tiger of Malaya”. Though accounts that the treasure remains hidden in Philippines have lured treasure hunters from around the world for over fifty years, its existence is dismissed by most experts. The rumored treasure has been the subject of a complex lawsuit that was filed in a Hawaiian state court in 1988 involving a Filipino treasure hunter, Rogelio Roxas, and the former Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos.

* Prominent among those arguing for the existence of Yamashita’s gold are Sterling Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave, who have written two books relating to the subject: The Yamato Dynasty: the Secret History of Japan’s Imperial Family (2000) and Gold Warriors: America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold (2003). The Seagraves contend that looting was organized on a massive scale, by both yakuza gangsters such as Yoshio Kodama, and the highest levels of Japanese society, including Emperor Hirohito. The Japanese government intended that loot from Southeast Asia would finance Japan’s war effort. The Seagraves allege that Hirohito appointed his brother, Prince Yasuhito Chichibu, to head a secret organization called Kin no yuri (“Golden Lily”), for this purpose. It is purported that many of those who knew the locations of the loot were killed during the war, or later tried by the Allies for war crimes and executed or incarcerated. Yamashita himself was (controversially) convicted of war crimes and executed by the U.S. Army on February 23, 1946.

The stolen property reportedly included many different kinds of valuables looted from banks, depositories, temples, churches, other commercial premises, mosques, museums and private homes. It takes its name from General Tomoyuki Yamashita, who assumed command of Japanese forces in the Philippines in 1944.
According to various accounts, the loot was initially concentrated in Singapore, and later transported to the Philippines. The Japanese hoped to ship the treasure from the Philippines to the Japanese Home Islands after the war ended. As the War in the Pacific progressed, U.S. Navy submarines and Allied warplanes inflicted increasingly heavy sinkings of Japanese merchant shipping. Some of the ships carrying the war booty back to Japan were sunk in combat.

The Seagraves and a few others have claimed that American military intelligence operatives located much of the loot; they colluded with Hirohito and other senior Japanese figures to conceal its existence, and they used it to finance American covert intelligence operations around the world during the Cold War. These rumors have inspired many hopeful treasure hunters, but most experts and Filipino historians say there is no credible evidence behind these claims.

In 1992, Imelda Marcos claimed that Yamashita’s gold accounted for the bulk of the wealth of her husband, Ferdinand Marcos.
Many individuals and consortia, both Philippine and foreign, continue to search for treasure sites. A number of accidental deaths, injuries and financial losses incurred by treasure hunters have been reported.
At present, the Mines & Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Natural Resources of the Philippines is the Filipino government agency that grants treasure permits.

* University of the Philippines professor Rico Jose has questioned the theory that treasure from mainland South East Asia was transported to the Philippines: “By 1943 the Japanese were no longer in control of the seas… It doesn’t make sense to bring in something that valuable here when you know it’s going to be lost to the Americans anyway. The more rational thing would have been to send it to Taiwan or China.”
Philippines National Historical Institute chairman and historian Ambeth Ocampo commented: “Two of the wealth myths I usually encounter are the Yamashita treasure and gossip that the Cojuangco fortune was founded on a bag of money…” Ocampo also said: “For the past 50 years many people, both Filipinos and foreigners, have spent their time, money and energy in search of Yamashita’s elusive treasure.” Professor Ocampo noted “What makes me wonder is that for the past 50 years, despite all the treasure hunters, their maps, oral testimony and sophisticated metal detectors, nobody has found a thing.”

* In March 1988, a Filipino treasure hunter named Rogelio Roxas filed a lawsuit in the state of Hawaii against the former president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda Marcos for theft and human rights abuses. Roxas claimed that in Baguio City in 1961 he met the son of a former member of the Japanese army who mapped for him the location of the legendary Yamashita Treasure. Roxas claimed a second man, who served as Yamashita’s interpreter during the Second World War, told him of visiting an underground chamber there where stores of gold and silver were kept, and who told of a golden buddha kept at a convent located near the underground chambers. Roxas claimed that within the next few years he formed a group to search for the treasure, and obtained a permit for the purpose from a relative of Ferdinand, Judge Pio Marcos. In 1971, Roxas claimed, he and his group uncovered an enclosed chamber on state lands near Baguio City where he found bayonets, samurai swords, radios, and skeletal remains dressed in a Japanese military uniform. Also found in the chamber, Roxas claimed, were a 3-foot-high (0.91 m) golden-colored Buddha and numerous stacked crates which filled an area approximately 6 feet x 6 feet x 35 feet. He claimed he opened just one of the boxes, and found it packed with gold bullion. He said he took from the chamber the golden Buddha, which he estimated to weigh 1,000 kilograms, and one box with twenty-four gold bars, and hid them in his home. He claimed he resealed the chamber for safekeeping until he could arrange the removal of the remaining boxes, which he suspected were also filled with gold bars. Roxas said he sold seven of the gold bars from the opened box, and sought potential buyers for the golden Buddha. Two individuals representing prospective buyers examined and tested the metal in the Buddha, Roxas said, and reported it was made of solid, 20-carat gold. It was soon after this, Roxas claimed, that President Ferdinand Marcos learned of Roxas’ discovery and ordered him arrested, beaten, and the Buddha and remaining gold seized. Roxas alleged that in retaliation to his vocal campaign to reclaim the Buddha and the remainder of the treasure taken from him, Ferdinand continued to have Roxas threatened, beaten and eventually incarcerated for over a year.

Following his release, Roxas put his claims against Marcos on hold until Ferdinand lost the presidency in 1986. But in 1988, Roxas and the Golden Budha Corporation, which now held the ownership rights to the treasure Roxas claims was stolen from him, filed suit against Ferdinand and wife Imelda in a Hawaiian state court seeking damages for the theft and the surrounding human rights abuses committed against Roxas. Roxas died on the eve of trial, but prior to his death he gave the deposition testimony that would be later used in evidence. In 1996, the Roxas estate and the Golden Budha Corporation received what was then largest judgment ever awarded in history, $22 billion which with interest increased to $40.5 billion. In 1998, The Hawaii Supreme Court held that there was sufficient evidence to support the jury’s finding that Roxas found the treasure and that Marcos converted it. However, the court reversed the damage award, holding that the $22 billion award of damages for the chamber full of gold was too speculative, as there was no evidence of quantity or quality, and ordered a new hearing on the value of the golden Buddha and 17 bars of gold only. After several more years of legal proceedings, the Golden Budha Corporation obtained a final judgment against Imelda Marcos to the extent of her interest in the Marcos estate in the principal amount of $13,275,848.37 and Roxas’ estate obtained a $6 million judgment on the claim for human right abuse.

This lawsuit ultimately concluded that Roxas found a treasure, and although the Hawaiian state court was not required to determine whether this particular treasure was the legendary Yamashita’s gold, the testimony relied upon by the court in reaching its conclusion pointed in that direction. Roxas was allegedly following a map from the son of a Japanese soldier; Roxas allegedly relied on tips provided from Yamashita’s interpreter; and Roxas allegedly found samurai swords and the skeletons of dead Japanese soldiers in the treasure chamber. All this led the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal to summarize the allegations leading to Roxas’ final judgment as follows: “The Yamashita Treasure was found by Roxas and stolen from Roxas by Marcos’ men.”

Awa Maru treasure (1945)

Gold, platinum, and diamonds worth more than $5 billion. Alleged. It was lost when the Japanese ship Awa Maru was hit by a torpedo and sank in April 1945.

Patiala Necklace (circa 1948)

The Patiala Necklace was a necklace created by the House of Cartier in 1928. It was made for and named after Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, the then ruling Maharaja of the state of Patiala. It contained 2,930 diamonds, including as its centerpiece, the world’s seventh largest diamond, the 428 carat “De Beers”.

* The necklace disappeared around 1948. Part of it was recovered fifty years later with the De Beers diamond missing, along with many of the larger stones.

Lufthansa heist (1978)

Cash and jewels from a robbery at Lufthansa’s cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport in December 1978. With a value of about $5 million, it was the largest cash robbery in the United States at the time.

Antwerp Diamond heist (2003)

The Antwerp Diamond Heist, dubbed the “heist of the century”, was a theft of loose diamonds, gold, and other jewellery valued at more than $100 million. The heist took place during the weekend of February 15–16, 2003, in the Antwerp Diamond Centre, located in the centre of the gem district in Antwerp, Belgium. The Antwerp centre heist was the largest diamond heist in history until surpassed by the Schiphol Airport diamond heist on 25 February 2005 and estimated at €109 million ($118 million).

The vault that housed the diamonds is situated two floors below the Diamond Centre. It was protected by multiple security mechanisms, including a lock with 100 million possible combinations, infrared heat detectors, a seismic sensor, Doppler radar, and a magnetic field. The diamond centre itself had a private security force.

Robbery and Perpetrators

* Leonardo Notarbartolo had rented a sparsely furnished office for approximately 25,000 Belgian francs ($700) per month in the diamond centre two and a half years prior to the robbery. It included a safe deposit box located in the vault beneath the building. It also included a tenant ID card that gave him 24-hour access to the building.
There, he posed as an Italian diamond merchant in order to gain credibility. After the robbery, Notarbartolo and his team stole the security footage to conceal their identities. More than 123 out of 160 safe-deposit boxes were forced open, each of which was made of steel and copper and had both a key lock and combination lock.

* The theft is believed to have been carried out by a five-man team, headed by Leonardo Notarbartolo. Notarbartolo had rented space in the diamond center, and was arrested after being connected to the crime by DNA evidence from a partially eaten sandwich found near the crime scene along with video tapes from the diamond centre.
He was found guilty of orchestrating the heist. He is considered to be the leader of a ring of Italian thieves called “La Scuola di Torino” (The School of Turin). who carried out the crime. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but has since been released on parole.

Notarbartolo claimed in an interview with Wired magazine that a diamond merchant hired them for the heist. He claims that they actually stole approximately €18 million ($20 million) worth of loot, and that the robbery was part of an insurance fraud.

Graff Diamonds robbery (2009)

43 items of jewelery, stolen in London on 6 August 2009. Valued at nearly £40 million.

Ivory Coast Crown Jewels (2011)

Gold pendants, necklaces and bracelets worth $6 million.

Brussels Airport diamond heist (2013)

On 18 February 2013, eight masked gunmen in two cars with police markings stole approximately US$50 million (€38 million, GB£33 million) worth of diamonds from a Swiss-bound Fokker 100 operated by Helvetic Airways on the apron at Brussels Airport, Belgium, just before 20:00 CET. The heist was accomplished without a shot being fired.

* The robbers hid in a construction site outside the airport prior to the robbery. They were armed with AK-47 type rifles and dressed as police officers. Entering the airport through a hole they created in the airport security fence, the robbers drove on the property with two vehicles, a Mercedes van and a car, both of which were black with flashing blue police lights. They drove straight to the airplane where the gems were being transferred from a Brink’s armored van, which had driven from Antwerp, onto the Fokker 100 twin engine jet Swiss Flight LX789, which was bound for Zurich.
The time period between the loading procedure and the moment the plane started to move to take off would only have lasted “15 minutes” according to Caroline De Wolf, a spokeswoman for the Antwerp World Diamond Centre. De Wolf stated that the window for opportunity was so small that the perpetrators must have known ahead of time about the transfer procedures and timing.

The robbers stopped the plane and then brandished their guns, stopping the pilots and transport security. The Brussels prosecutors’ office described the weapons used as “like Kalashnikovs” most likely the Galil. The robbers never dropped their weapons. The robbers loaded 130 bags into their cars and drove off, but left behind some gems in their hurry.
The whole robbery took about 20 minutes. The robbery did not appear to disturb any of the passengers. In fact, the passengers did not know that anything had happened until they were told to disembark because the flight had been cancelled. The van believed to be used in the robbery was later found abandoned and burned.

Reaction and Caught

* Belgian prosecutor Ine Van Wymersch said the thieves “were very, very professional”. French airport security consultant Doron Levy said, “I am certain this was an inside job”, adding the heist was “incredibly audacious and well organized” and that big jobs like that were often so well organized the thieves “probably know the employees by name”.
Several arrests were made on May 8th 2013 during raids in Belgium. About 200 police officers searched 40 apartments, mostly in Brussels, and secured some of the haul.

* More than 30 suspects in a spectacular $50 million diamond heist have been rounded up in three countries and at least some of the precious stones have been recovered, Belgian and Swiss officials said today.The sweep operation started Tuesday with an arrest of a man in France and Swiss police arrested six other people said Anja Bijnens of the state prosecutor’s office in Brussels. Some 250 Belgian police officers arrested 24 more people in the Brussels area, Bijnens said.

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“LOST BUT NOT FORGOTTEN” – 4. LOST ARTWORKS

28 Aug

source : wikipedia.com

Lost artworks are original pieces of art that credible sources indicate once existed but that cannot be accounted for in museums or private collections or are known to have been destroyed deliberately or accidentally, or neglected through ignorance and lack of connoisseurship.

LIST Of LOST ARTWORKS :

* Works are listed chronologically by when they were created, not by when they were destroyed or lost.*

Classical era

* The “Colossus of Rhodes”, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

*    The “Statue of Zeus at Olympia”, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

*    The “Athena Parthenos”, originally housed in the Parthenon

*    The “Lemnian Athena”, a bronze worked by Phidias housed in the Parthenon

*    The “Aphrodite of Knidos”, a 4th-century BCE marble sculpture by Praxiteles

*    Paintings of the “Sack of Troy” and “Odysseus in the Underworld” in the Lesche of Knidos at Delphi by Polygnotus of Thasos, mid-5th century BCE. Described in detail by Pausanias in his Description of Greece, Chapter X, 25-31.

* A colossal bronze seated Hercules, executed by the Greek sculptor Lysippus for the acropolis of Tarentum in southern Italy was taken to Rome by Fabius Maximus, 209 BCE, and installed on the Capitoline Hill. Later taken to Constantinople to decorate the Hippodrome, it was melted down by invading Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade, 1204 CE.

5th century

* Mosaic portraits of members of the western and eastern imperial families and the bishop of Ravenna, commissioned by Galla Placidia in the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista, Ravenna (c. 425 CE). Destroyed by 1747.

* “The Regisole”, an equestrian monument to Theodoric the Great, King of the Ostrogoths, erected at Ravenna. Moved to Pavia in the Middle Ages, it stood before the cathedral. Destroyed by the Jacobin Club in Pavia in 1796, because considered as a symbol of monarchy.

6th century

* “The Buddhas of Bamyan”, destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

8th century

* Many icons were destroyed during the reign of Leo III the Isaurian, including a famous image of Christ Chalkites on the Chalke Gate. Only a few icons from this period survive, saved outside of imperial control at St. Catherine’s Monastery, in the Sinai.

11th century

* The final portion of the Bayeux Tapestry was deliberately removed at some point, and is now lost.

14th century

* Panels of the great Maestà altarpiece of Duccio di Buoninsegna, painted for the Duomo of Siena and representing the Coronation of the Virgin, Virgin of the Assumption, Ascension of Christ and Christ in Majesty are missing and presumed lost.

*    The great Navicella mosaic of Giotto di Bondone outside Old Saint Peter’s Basilica was moved and extensively reworked in the 17th century, so is now effectively lost.

*    Giotto’s allegorical fresco of the Commune of Florence portrayed as a seated judge with sceptre, flanked by figures of Fortitude, Prudence, Justice and Temperance, painted for the Palazzo del Podestà, now the Bargello, Florence. Described by Giorgio Vasari.

*    Giotto’s frescoes of the Stories of the Apostles for the Giugni Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence.

*    A lost painting of the Virgin by Giotto was bequeathed by the poet Petrarch to Francesca da Carrara, lord of Padua, in 1370.

*    Fresco, Saint Margaret of Cortona bringing Suppolino back to Life by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Church of Santa Margherita, Cortona. Destroyed mid-17th century.

* A lost portrait of Petrarch’s Laura de Noves by Simone Martini is the subject of one of Petrarch’s sonnets.

15th century

* Virgin Enthroned with Saints and Angels (1402) by Lorenzo Monaco. Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Statue of Joshua in terra cotta by Donatello for the north tribune of the Duomo of Florence (c. 1410). Disappeared in the 18th century.

*    Statue of Abundance (Dovizia) in stone by Donatello (1428). On a column placed first in the Baptistery of the Duomo, later in the Mercato Vecchio, Florence. Replaced in the 18th century, now lost.

*    Frescoes by Gentile da Fabriano and Pisanello in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome. Destroyed in reconstruction, 1647.

*    Fresco cycle of 300 images of Illustrious Men by Masolino da Panicale and Paolo Uccello (c. 1432) for the Palace of Cardinal Orsini in Rome. A watercolor copy by Leonardo da Besozzo survives.

*    The Sagra del Carmine, monochrome fresco for the cloister of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, by Masaccio (1425) representing the consecration of the church in 1422. Destroyed by 1600.

*    Fresco of the Confirmation of the Rules of the Carmelites by Filippo Lippi in the cloister of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. Destroyed by fire, 1771. A fragment uncovered in 1860 survives in place.

*    A Crucifix was painted by Fra Angelico for the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, in 1423.

*    School of Fra Angelico. Last Judgment (1456). Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Fresco of the Flagellation by Andrea del Castagno in the cloister of the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence, destroyed in the 17th century.

*    Frescoes of the life of the Virgin (1450–1452) begun by Domenico Veneziano and completed by Andrea del Castagno in the church of Sant’ Egidio (Santa Maria Nuova), Florence. Destroyed 1594.

*    Fresco cycle of the life of Santa Rosa, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli for the church of Santa Rosa, Viterbo. Destroyed by 1632 renovations to the church. Autograph and other drawings and a contemporary description survive.

*    Altarpiece with scenes from the life of Saint Nicholas by Antonello da Messina for the Confraternity of San Nicolò della Montagna in Messina. Seen by Cavalcaselle in 1871. Destroyed in the 1908 Messina earthquake.

*    Virgin and Child in Glory with Saints John the Evangelist, Francis, Jerome and John the Baptist (c. 1496) by Domenico Ghirlandaio. Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Several original paintings on “pagan” subjects by Sandro Botticelli, who burned them in the Bonfire of the Vanities.

*    Portrait of Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici (c. 1478) by Botticelli. Formerly Museo Civico Gaetano Filangieri, Naples. Destroyed in World War II. Photographs survive.

*    Frescoes on mythological themes, including the Forge of Vulcan, executed by Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Filippino Lippi and Perugino for Lorenzo de’ Medici in the great hall and external loggia of his villa at Spedaletto, near Volterra, 1487-90. Damaged by damp and finally destroyed by fire in the early 19th century.

*    Fresco of the Triumph of Trajan by Vincenzo Foppa, done for the Medici bank in the Via de’ Bossi, Milan. A fragment survives in the Wallace Collection, London.

*    Altarpiece for the church of Santa Maria dei Battuti in Belluno (c. 1485) by Alvise Vivarini. Destroyed by fire in Berlin during World War II.

*    Frescoes, including a Baptism of Christ for the Belvedere Chapel of the Vatican (1488) by Andrea Mantegna. Destroyed under Pope Pius VI to permit construction of the Pio-Clementino Museum, 1780.

*    Mantegna’s Lamentation of the People over the Dead Gattamelata (1457–60), a fresco in the Palazzo Gattamelata, Padua. Destroyed by fire November 5, 1760.

*    Saint Catherine of Siena Altarpiece (Sacra Conversazione) by Giovanni Bellini in the Chapel of the Rosary of the Church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. Destroyed by fire in 1867.

*    The Supper at Emmaus (c. 1494) by Giovanni Bellini. Painted for Giorgio Cornaro of Venice. Destroyed by fire in Vienna in the 18th century.

*    Fresco, Ascension with Christ in Glory (c. 1478-80) by Melozzo da Forlì for the choir of the Church of the Santi Apostoli, Rome. Destroyed in 1711 for the enlargement of the choir, 1711. Fragments survive in the Vatican and Quirinal.

*    The Court of Pan by Luca Signorelli. Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Fresco of Madonna and Saints for the Tower of Città di Castello (1474) by Signorelli. Destroyed by earthquake in 1789.

*    Frescoes of The Calumny of Apelles and The Feast of Pan by Signorelli. Painted for the audience chamber (Camera delle Torre) of the Palazzo Petrucci (Palazzo del Magnifico), Siena.

*    Adoration of the Magi fresco by Perugino for the convent of S. Giusto alla Mura.Destroyed in preparation for the defense of the city during the Siege of Florence in 1529.

*    Decorations for the Castel Sant’Angelo of the life and court of Pope Alexander VI and his children, cited by Vasari.

*    The lower left panel of Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece, titled The Just Judges, was stolen in 1934 and is now lost.

Triptych of the Virgin and Child with Donor by Van Eyck (c. 1441). Painted for Nicholas van Maelbeke, provost of St. Martin’s Cathedral, Ypres. Removed from the cathedral and lost during the French occupation of The Netherlands, 1792–1815. A 1629 copy was acquired by the Bruges museum in 2007.

*    Crucifixion by Petrus Christus (attributed) (c. 1444). Formerly Dessau Museum. Destroyed by bombing in World War II.

*    The Justice of Trajan and the Justice of Herkenbald by Rogier van der Weyden. Painted for the ‘Gulden Camere’ (Golden Chamber) of the Brussels Town Hall. The first dated 1439. Destroyed in the French Bombardment of Brussels in 1695.

*    Descent from the Cross altarpiece by Jan Mabuse executed for the church of Middelburg. Destroyed by fire, 1568.

*    Tapestries of the Great History of Troy (c. 1475) for the Painted Chamber of the Palace of Westminster, London. Removed 1820 and sold for ten pounds sterling to a London merchant. Presumed destroyed.

*    Frescos by Piero della Francesca in the Vatican Palace, destroyed (or covered) by Raphael before painting the Stanze.

*    A terracotta statue of a horse (part of the monument to duke Francesco Sforza) by Leonardo da Vinci destroyed by French soldiers during the occupation of Milan in 1499.

* Frescos by Pisanello representing hunting scenes in the Castle of Pavia, detroyed by French soldiers in 1527.

16th century

* The Trial of Saint Stephen by Vittore Carpaccio. One of a series of five canvases for the Scuola di San Stefano, Venice. Untraced after 1806. A drawing for the modello survives in the Uffizi.

*    Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Faustinus and Jovita, patron saints of Brescia (the Averoldi Altarpiece) by Carpaccio. Formerly sacristy of S. Giovanni Evangelista, Brescia. Sold to the National Gallery London, lost in a shipwreck crossing the English Channel.

*    Assumption of the Virgin (c. 1507-08) by Fra Bartolomeo. Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturn following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Medusa (before 1500, unfinished) by Leonardo da Vinci. In the collection of Cosimo I of Tuscany, 1553. Lost since the end of the 16th century.

*    Leda and the Swan (1508) by Leonardo da Vinci. Disappeared from the French royal palace of Fontainebleau after 1623.

*    The Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci (Palazzo Vecchio)

*    Cartoon by Michelangelo of the battle of Cascina, Palazzo Vecchio, putatively destroyed by Bandinelli

*    A painting of Leda and the Swan (circa 1530) by Michelangelo. Given by the artist to his friend Antonio Mini who took it to France, where it disappeared.

*    A marble Cupid by Michelangelo, later owned by Isabella d’Este and Charles I of England. Destroyed in a fire at Whitehall Palace, London, 1698.

*    A marble Hercules by Michelangelo, his first free-standing statue (c. 1492-94). Installed in the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1506, sent to France in the 16th century. Disappeared from the French royal palace of Fontainebleau in the 18th century.

*    A bronze statue of David resting his foot on the severed head of Goliath, by Michelangelo.

*    A bronze statue of pope Julius II in the act of blessing by Michelangelo on San Petronio basilica’s facade in Bologna, destroyed by the people of Bologna in 1511.

*    Altarpiece of the Madonna and Child with St. Mary Magdalen and St. Lucy (Madonna of Albinea) by Antonio da Correggio.

*    Fresco of The Coronation of the Virgin for the church of San Giovanni Evangelista, Parma, by Correggio. Destroyed 1587. Fragments in National Gallery, London, other museums.

*    Portrait of a Young Man by Raphael. Stolen by Germans from the Czartoryski Gallery in Kraków during World War II, now lost.

*    Baronci altarpiece (the Crowning of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino) by Raphael. His first recorded commission, it was made for Andrea Baronci’s chapel in the church of Sant’Agostino in Citta di Castello, near Urbino. Destroyed in an 18th-century earthquake. At least four fragments survive (Louvre, Capodimonte).

*    Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Raphael. Formerly owned by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. Depicted in an engraving by Wenceslas Hollar. Presumed lost.

*    The Wedding of Neptune and Amphitrite silver bowl by Cellini. Taken from the Chapter of the Basilica of Santa Barbara, Modena, by the French, 1796. Presumed lost.

*    Ascension of Mary altarpiece (The ‘Heller altar’) by Dürer. The central panel added to the collection of Elector Maximilian of Bavaria, later lost in a fire in 1729.

*    Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, Virgin and Child with Four Female Saints and Madonna and Child with Infant Saint John by Cranach the Elder. Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturn following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Duke Henry of Saxony by Cranach the Elder. Destroyed during the Bombing of Dresden, February 1945.

*    Market Day by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Depicted in the 17th-century gallery of Cornelis van der Geest painted by Willem van Hoecht.

*    The Farmers Brawl by Breughel the Elder. Destroyed during the Bombing of Dresden, February 1945.

*    Hans Holbein the Younger’s Whitehall Mural of Henry VIII and family in Whitehall Palace, London, destroyed by fire in 1698.

*    The Family of Sir Thomas More by Holbein. Destroyed by fire at Kremsier Castle, the Moravian residence of Carl von Liechtenstein, archbishop of Olmutz, 1752.

*    The Goldsmith Hans von Zurich by Holbein. Copied by Lucas Vosterman. Engraved by Wenceslas Hollar. Presumed lost.

*    Various works of Titian (including his Battle of Spoleto, Battle of Cadore and Doge Gritti Praying to the Virgin), Tintoretto (his Coronation of Frederick Barbarossa, Excommunication of Barbarossa and Last Judgment), Paolo Veronese (his Homage of Frederick Barbarossa), Gentile da Fabriano, Pisanello, Carpaccio (his Battle of Ancona), Alvise Vivarini (Otho Promising to Mediate Between Venice and Barbarossa), Guariento (his Paradise), Gentile Bellini (his Battle of Salvore and Presentation of the White Candle to the Pope) and Giovanni Bellini (his Presentation of the Eight Standards and Trumpets to the Doge) were lost in a fire at the Doge’s Palace in Venice in 1577.

*    Portrait of Isabella d’Este in Red by Titian. A copy by Rubens is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

*    The Francesco St Jerome painted c1595 was lost for over 200 year’s before being discovered in 2008.

*    Martyrdom of St Peter for the Chapel of the Rosary, Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, was destroyed by fire in 1867. Copies and engravings survive.

*    Double Portrait of Emperor Charles V and his wife Isabella of Portugal by Titian. Destroyed in the Alcazar palace fire, Madrid, 1734. A copy by Rubens survives.

*    Penitent Magdalene by Titian. Painted for Philip II of Spain, 1561. Destroyed in a fire at Bath House, London, January 21, 1873.

*    Ixion and Tantalus by Titian. Destroyed in the Alcazar palace fire, Madrid, 1734.

*    Paintings of The Twelve Caesars by Titian. Destroyed in the Alcazar palace fire, Madrid, 1734.

*    Venus in Front of her Mirror by Titian. Lost from the Spanish royal collection in the 19th century. A copy by Rubens survives.

*    Apollo and Juno and Saturn Helps Religion to Overcome Heresy by Veronese. Painted c. 1580 for the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, Venice. Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm, following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Fresco of God the Father and the Four Evangelists by Pontormo in the Capponi Chapel, Church of Santa Felicita, Florence. Destroyed in 18th-century remodeling.

* Unfinished fresco of the Last Judgment at the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence by Pontormo. Destroyed in 18th-century renovations of the Basilica.

17th century

* The Armada Tapestries executed by Hendrick Vroom for Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, 1602. Sold to James I, 1616 and placed in the House of Lords, London by Oliver Cromwell, 1650. Destroyed in the Burning of Parliament, 1834. Engraved by John Pine, 1739.

*    Equestrian bronze statue of Henry IV of France by Giovanni da Bologna. Presented to Marie de Medicis by Cosimo II of Tuscany in 1614. Melted for cannon during the French Revolution.

*    Time Saving Truth from Envy and Discord by Nicolas Poussin. Untraced since 1840.

*    The Martyrdom of Erasmus (c. 1630) by Poussin, Destroyed during the Bombing of Dresden,February 1945 in Dresden, Germany.

*    Penance, one of the seven Sacraments (1637–40) by Poussin, destroyed by fire at Belvoir Castle in 1816.

*    Queen Esther Approaching the Palace of Ahasuerus (1658) by Claude Lorrain. Destroyed in a fire at Fonthill Abbey, 1755.

*    Aeneas and the Sibyl of Cumae by Claude Lorrain (Liber Veritatis 183). One of four works commissioned by Prince Falconieri executed 1666-73.

*    Raising of the Cross altarpiece by Peter Paul Rubens. Painted for the Church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Rome (1601–02).

*    Judith Beheading Holofernes by Rubens (c. 1609). Known only though the 1610 engraving by Cornelis Galle the Elder.

*    Madonna of the Rosary by Rubens. Painted for the Royal Chapel of the Dominican Church, Brussels. Destroyed in the French Bombardment of Brussels, 1695.

*    Virgin Adorned with Flowers by Saint Anne by Rubens (1610). Painted for the Church of the Carmelite Friars, Brussels. Destroyed in the French Bombardment of Brussels, 1695.

*    Saint Job Triptych by Rubens (1613). Painted for Saint Nicholas Church, Brussels. Destroyed in the French Bombardment of Brussels, 1695.

*    Cambyses Appointing Otanes Judge, Judgment of Solomon, and Last Judgment by Rubens. Decoration for the Magistrates’ Hall, Brussels. Destroyed in the French Bombardment of Brussels, 1695.

*    Neptune and Amphitrite by Rubens (c. 1615). Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm, following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, and Pentecost by Rubens. Painted for the Chapel of Coudenberg Palace, Brussels. Destroyed by fire, 1731.

*    Susannah and the Elders by Rubens (1617–18). Engraved 1620 by Lucas Vosterman.

*    Satyr, Nymph, Putti and Leopards by Rubens (1618). Now known only from engraving.

*    The Abduction of Proserpine by Rubens. Engraved before 1621 by Pieter Soutman. Destroyed by fire at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, February 5, 1861.

*    Crucifixion with Mary, St. John, Magdalen by Rubens (1622). Destroyed by English Parliamentarians in the Queen’s Chapel, Somerset House, London, 1643.

*    Portrait of Philip IV of Spain by Rubens (1628). Destroyed by an incendiary attack at the Kunsthaus, Zurich, in 1985.

*    Diana and Nymphs Surprised by Satyrs by Rubens (c. 1635-38). Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm, following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Equestrian Portrait of the Archduke Albert by Rubens.

*    Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV of Spain by Rubens. Destroyed in the Alcazar royal palace fire, Madrid, 1734. A copy is in the Uffizi Gallery.

*    The Continence of Scipio by Rubens. Destroyed by fire in the Western Exchange, Old Bond Street, London, March 1836.

*    The Lion Hunt by Rubens. Removed by Napoleon’s agents from Schloss Schleissheim, near Munich, 1800 and sent ultimately to the Bordeaux Museum, where it was destroyed by fire, 1870.

*    Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Buckingham by Rubens. Later owned by the Earl of Jersey at Osterley Park. Destroyed by fire in 1949.

*    Series of 39 ceiling paintings for the Jesuit Church in Antwerp (nl:Carolus Borromeuskerk#Branden, Dutch wiki), designed by Rubens, largely executed by Van Dyck. Destroyed by fire in 1718.

*    Vision of Saint Hubert by Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder. Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm, following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Allegories of Sight and Smell and Allegories of Hearing, Taste and Touch by Jan Brueghel the Elder and other artists. Destroyed in the Coudenberg Palace fire, Brussels, 1731.

*    Group Portrait of the Town Council of Brussels by Van Dyck. Destroyed in the Bombardment of Brussels, 1695.

*    Christ Crowned with Thorns, Lamentation over Christ, Nymphs Surprised by Satyrs and Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist by Van Dyck. Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm, following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Adoration of the Shepherds (Birth of Christ) by Gerrit van Honthorst. Destroyed in the car bombing of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, May 1993.

*    Six Gold and Silver Smiths (The “Bankers of Amsterdam”) by Thomas de Keyser (1627). One of 30 paintings destroyed by fire at the Musée de Beaux Arts, Strasbourg, August 13, 1947.

*    The Circumcision (1646) by Rembrandt. Went missing in the 18th century.

*    Bentheim Castle with Christ and Disciples on the Road to Emmaus by Jacob van Ruisdael. Destroyed by fire at the Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam, 1864.

*    Large family portrait by Carel Fabritius. Destroyed by fire at the Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam, 1864.

*    Sleeping Man by Aelbert Cuyp. Destroyed by fire at the Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam, 1864.

*    A Gentleman washing his hands in a see-through room (half-door) with sculptures, artful and rare by Vermeer, listed in the catalogue of the Dissius auction, Holland, 1696.

*    The Inspiration of Matthew first version by Caravaggio (c. 1601) (Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm, following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.)

*    Christ on the Mount of Olives by Caravaggio (1605). From the collection of Vincenzo Giustiniani. Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm, following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Fillide Melandroni (c. 1597) by Caravaggio. Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm, following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    A portrait of Alof de Wignacourt by Caravaggio.

*    Saint John, Saint Francis, and a Resurrection by Caravaggio, done for Sant’Anna dei Lombardi, Naples. Destroyed in an earthquake, 1798.

*    Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence by Caravaggio for the Oratorio of San Lorenzo, Palermo. Stolen in 1969, unrecovered.

*    The Conversion of Saint Paul altarpiece by Orazio Gentileschi, done for the basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome. Destroyed by fire, 1823.

*    The Stoning of Saint Stephen altarpiece by Lavinia Fontana, done for the basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome. Destroyed by fire, 1823.

*    Hercules and Omphale by Artemisia Gentileschi (1628), painted for Philip IV of Spain. Destroyed in the Alcazar palace fire, Madrid, 1734.

*    Bathsheba by Artemisia Gentileschi (1650–52). Destroyed by fire at Gosford House, Scotland, 1940.

*    La Buonavventura and Ciclo Vito by Bartolomeo Manfredi. Destroyed in the car bombing of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, May 1993.

*    Danae by Annibale Carracci. Formerly Ellesmere collection, Bridgewater House, Westminster, London. Destroyed by enemy action in World War II, May 11, 1941.

*    Saint Gregory Praying for Souls in Purgatory (c. 1600), altarpiece painted by Annibale Caracci for the church of San Gregorio Magno, Rome. Formerly Ellesmere collection, Bridgewater House, Westminster, London. Destroyed by enemy action in World War II, May 11, 1941.

*    Descent from the Cross by Ludovico Carracci. Formerly Ellesmere collection, Bridgewater House, Westminster, London. Destroyed by enemy action in World War II, May 11, 1941.

*    Bacchus and Ariadne by Guido Reni. Commissioned for Queen Henrietta Maria’s house at Greenwich, 1637. Destroyed in France in the 17th century by the widow of Michel Particelli d’Hemery, who was scandalized by the female nudes it contained. A fragment with the head of Ariadne survives.

*    Immaculate Conception by Guido Reni. Formerly Seville Cathedral, Spain, later in the Ellesmere collection, Bridgewater House, Westminster, London. Destroyed by enemy action in World War II, May 11, 1941.

*    Bust of Charles I by Bernini, in marble. Destroyed in the Whitehall Palace fire, London, 1698.

*    Crucified Christ by Bernini, in bronze. Formerly in the French royal collection. Destroyed in the French Revolution.

*    Expulsion of the Moors with Philip III (1627) by Velasquez. Destroyed in the Alcazar palace fire, Madrid, 1734.

*    Venus and Adonis by Velasquez. Destroyed in the Alcazar palace fire, Madrid, 1734.

*    Cupid and Psyche by Velasquez. Destroyed in the Alcazar palace fire, Madrid, 1734.

*    Apollo and Marsyas by Velasquez. Destroyed in the Alcazar palace fire, Madrid, 1734.

*    Two portraits of royal jesters, Francesco de Ochoa and Cardenas the Toreador, painted by Velasquez for the Buen Retiro Palace, Madrid.

*    Pelican with Bucket and Donkeys painted by Velasquez for the Palace of Buen Retiro, Madrid.

*    Saint Bonaventure Reveals the Crucifix to Saint Thomas Aquinas by Zurbarán. Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm, following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Frescoes of The Labors of Hercules by Luca Giordano painted 1692–1702 for the Buen Retiro Palace of Charles II of Spain, Madrid. Destroyed in the 19th century.

*    Frescoes of the Life of Saint Benedict by Giordano painted for the Abbey of Monte Cassino were destroyed by Allied bombing February 15, 1944.

* William III Leading Troops at the Battle of the Boyne by Godfrey Kneller. Destroyed by fire in Grocers’ Hall, London, September 22, 1965.

18th century

* The Amber Room of the Catherine Palace in Russia, stolen by Germans during World War II, now lost.

*    The Drawing Lesson and A Girl Reciting her Gospel by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin.

*    Still Life with Copper Kettle, Bowl with Eggs (1724–25), by Chardin. Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm, following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    Decorations for the Chateau de la Muette: the Goddess Ki Mao Sao in the Kingdom of Mang in the country of Laos, by Watteau (engraved c. 1719). Demolished at the Revolution.

*    Spring (Printemps), one of a series of four paintings of the Seasons, painted by Watteau for the banker Pierre Crozat. Rediscovered 1964, destroyed by fire two years later. Autumn and Winter from the series remain unaccounted for.

*    Jay and Oriole Hung by the Feet by Jean-Baptiste Oudry. Exhibited at the Salon of 1751.

*    The original paintings of A Harlot’s Progress (1731) by William Hogarth were destroyed in a fire at Fonthill Abbey in 1755, but the engravings (1732) survive.

*    Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn (1738) by Hogarth was destroyed by fire at Littleton House in December 1874. An engraving by the artist survives.

*    Fresco of The Translation of the Holy House of Loreto by Gianbattista Tiepolo in the Church of the Scalzi, Venice. Destroyed by enemy action (Austrian shell), 1915.

*    Frescoes by Gianbattista and Giandomenico Tiepolo glorifying the Soderini family, Villa Soderini, Nervesa della Battaglia, in the Veneto (c. 1754) were totally destroyed during an Italo-Austrian engagement in the First World War, June 15–19, 1918.

*    Ceiling frescoes of The Triumph of the Arts and Sciences, Apollo and Phaethon, Perseus and Andromeda and Juno with Fortuna and Venus by Gianbattista Tiepolo in the Palazzo Archinto, Milan. Destroyed by bombardment in World War II.

*    Nativity, The Infant Jupiter, General James Oglethorpe and sixteen other works of Sir Joshua Reynolds were destroyed by fire at Belvoir Castle in 1816.

*    Gainsborough’s whole-length of David Garrick leaning on a bust of Shakespeare, painted for the Stratford Shakespeare Jubilee (1766) was destroyed in a fire at Stratford-upon-Avon Town Hall in 1946.

*    The Woodman and his Dog in a Storm (1787) by Gainsborough. Destroyed by fire at Exton Old Park,1810. A 1791 mezzotint by Pierre Simon exists.

*    Cottage Children with an Ass by Gainsborough. Destroyed by fire at Exton Old Park,1810. Survives in mezzotint.

*    The Destruction of Niobe’s Children by Richard Wilson. Formerly National Gallery, London. Destroyed by enemy action in World War II, 1944.

*    Bust of the composer Gluck in marble by Jean-Antoine Houdon. Destroyed by fire at the Paris Opera, 1873. Terra cotta versions exist.

*    The Eidophusikon (1781) by Philip James de Loutherbourg.

* Louis-Michel le Peletier, marquis de Saint-Fargeau on his Death Bed (1793) by Jacques-Louis David.

19th century

* Don Antonio de Porcel (1806) by Goya. Destroyed in a fire in the Jockey Club, Buenos Aires, 1956.

*    A Vision of the Last Judgment (1808) by William Blake. Earlier versions and sketches survive, but the final version has not been seen since the cancellation of an 1810 exhibit it was to have been part of.

*    Large seated portraits of the first three U.S. presidents, Washington, Adams, and Thomas Jefferson by Gilbert Stuart were destroyed in a fire at the Library of Congress, December 24, 1851.

*    “George Washington Seated, in Roman dress”, marble sculpture by Canova, destroyed by fire in the North Carolina State House, Raleigh, 1831. The artist’s plaster model survives.

*    Winter (1807–08), The Farewell (1818), The Harbor at Grifswald (c. 1820), Autumn Landscape with Brush Collector (1824), and Evening (1825), by Caspar David Friedrich. Destroyed in the Glaspalast (Munich) fire, 1931.

*    Mountain Chapel in the Mist (1811), Monastery Graveyard in the Snow (1817–18), High Mountain Region (1824), and Northern Lights (1830–35) by Caspar David Friedrich.Destroyed by fire in the Friedrichshain Flakturm, following the capture of Berlin, May 1945.

*    The Mouth of the Thames (1807) by Joseph Mallord William Turner. Destroyed by enemy action in World War II.

*    Fish Market on the Sands (1830) by Turner. Formerly owned by Billy Rose. Destroyed by fire, 1956.

*    Aeneas Relating his Story to Dido (1850) by Turner.
War and Peace (1846) by Sir Edwin Landseer. Destroyed in the basement of the Tate Gallery during the Thames flood, January 1928.

*    Mississippi River Panorama (1840–46) by John Banvard. Promoted as a ‘three-mile canvas’, though it was only approximately half a mile (800 m) long. Banvard gave the panorama many showings, including one to Queen Victoria. It is thought to have been cut up into pieces towards the end of the 19th century.

*    Washington Crossing the Delaware (1849–50) (first version) by Emanuel Leutze. Destroyed in an air raid on Bremen, 1942.

*    Apotheosis of Napoleon I by Ingres. Ceiling painting for the Hôtel de Ville, Paris. Destroyed by fire in the Paris Commune, 1871.

*    The Storming of the Bastille (1830) by Paul Delaroche. Painted for the Hotel de Ville, Paris. Destroyed by fire in the Paris Commune, 1871.
Justinian Drafting his Laws (1826) by Eugène Delacroix. Painted for the Council of State, Paris. Destroyed by fire in the Paris Commune, 1871. An 1855 photograph survives.

*    Peace Consoles Mankind and Brings Abundance (1852–54) by Delacroix. Painted for the Hall of Peace at the Hotel de Ville, Paris. Destroyed by fire in the Paris Commune, 1871.

*    Murals of War and Peace (1848) by Théodore Chassériau. Painted for the Cour des Comptes, Palais of the Quai d’Orsay, Paris. Destroyed by fire in the Paris Commune, 1871. A fragment of Peace is preserved in the Louvre.

*    The Jewish Captivity in Babylon by Jean-François Millet. Submitted for the Paris Salon, 1848. Painted over by the artist with a scene executed in Normandy in 1870-71.

*    The Stone Breakers, by Courbet, destroyed in transit from the Dresden Gallery in World War II.

*    The Return from the Conference (1863) by Courbet. Destroyed 1909 by its owner due to its anticlerical content.

*    Venus and Psyche (1864) by Courbet. Destroyed by enemy air action, Berlin, 1945.

*    Various pieces designed by William Burges for his house, The Tower House, have been lost. These include a white jade tazza and a salt cellar, both made in 1875, a sideboard and a display cabinet (1875-76), a mounted orange and a pair of buffets (1877), a pair of mirrors (c.1878), a mounted shell and a dressing table (1879), bronze frogs (1880), and a bronze; “Fame” (1880-81).

*    Donkey Cart with Boy and Scheveningen Woman (1882) by Van Gogh. Destroyed by fire in 1940 (formerly in Rotterdam).

*    The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen with Pond and Figures (1885) by Van Gogh. Destroyed by fire in Rotterdam during the Second World War.

*    Windmill on Montmartre (1886) by Van Gogh. Destroyed by fire in 1967.

*    Still Life: Vase with Five Sunflowers (1888) by Van Gogh. Formerly in the collection of Koyata Yamamoto, Japan. Destroyed by American air raids on Ashiya District, August 5–6, 1945.

*    The Painter on his Way to Work (1888) by Van Gogh. Formerly in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum, Berlin. Destroyed by fire in World War II.

*    The Park at Arles with the Entrance Seen Through the Trees (1888) by Van Gogh. Destroyed by fire in World War II.

*    The Lovers: The Poet’s Garden IV (1888) by Van Gogh. Declared degenerate and confiscated by the Nazis in 1937. Whereabouts unknown.

*    The New Jerusalem by George Inness was destroyed in the partial collapse of Madison Square Garden in 1880. Salvaged fragments survive, including Valley of the Olive Trees in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

*    The Apparition, a lost oil by James Tissot (1885). A mezzotint by the artist exists.

*    Henri Rousseau’s portrait of French playwright Alfred Jarry (1895) was destroyed by the sitter, who disliked it.

*    Head of Sir Henry Irving by John Singer Sargent. Destroyed by the sitter, who disliked it.

*    Portrait of Thomas Eakins by William Merritt Chase (c. 1899). Presumed destroyed by the sitter.

* The Fabergé eggs; Hen with Sapphire Pendant (1886), Cherub with Chariot (1888), the Necessaire egg (1889), Alexander III Portraits egg (1896), and the Mauve egg (1898).

20th century

* The Empire Nephrite (1902), Royal Danish (1903) and Alexander III Commemorative (1909) Fabergé eggs.

*    Musik II (1898), Schubert at the Piano (1899), Golden Apple Tree (1903), Procession of the Dead (1903), Klimt University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings: Medicine, Philosophy and Jurisprudence (1899–1907), Farm Garden with Crucifix (1911–12), Malcesine on Lake Garda (1913), Garden Path with Chickens (1916), Portrait of Wally (1916), The Girlfriends (c. 1916-17), Leda (1917), Gastein (1917), all by Gustav Klimt. Destroyed by a fire set by retreating German forces in 1945 at Schloss Immendorf, Austria.

*    Tammany Hall at Night by John Sloan was destroyed by fire during transit. The artist later created a replica from photographs.

*    Several paintings, sculptures, and furnishings from the RMS Titanic (1912) and the RMS Lusitania (1915).

*    Two paintings by Claude Monet, including a major study of Water Lilies, were destroyed in a fire at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in April 1958.

*    Diego Rivera’s mural Man at the Crossroads (1933) was destroyed and removed in 1934 because its content (including a portrait of Lenin) offended Nelson Rockefeller, who had commissioned the work. Rivera later recreated the work as Man, Controller of the Universe in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

*    Joan Miró’s large mural on panels, The Reaper, (1937) depicting a Catalan peasant, was created for the Spanish Republican pavilion of the 1937 Paris Exposition. Afterwards it was sent to Valencia and probably destroyed.

*    Over 90% of the public works of German sculptor Arno Breker were destroyed by the allies after World War II.

*    Works of Arshile Gorky were lost when his studio burned in 1946. In addition, 15 abstract paintings and drawings by Gorky were lost in a 1962 plane crash.”Disasters: Tragedy in Jamaica Bay”. Time. Mar. 09, 1962. Retrieved February 16, 2012.

*    A painting by Edward Hopper, “Corn Belt City” from 1947, was destroyed in a Park Avenue apartment fire in 1975.

*    Graham Sutherland’s portrait of Winston Churchill (1954) was deliberately destroyed by Lady Churchill because she did not like it.

*    Numerous works of the Corridart exhibition were removed and impounded or destroyed on the orders of Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau in 1976, creating a scandal.

*    Some 20 works were created on camera and then deliberately destroyed by Pablo Picasso for the documentary Le Mystère Picasso (The Mystery of Picasso, 1956).

*    On July 8, 1978, a rough fire caused by a cigarette or due an electrical failure, destroyed 90% of the artworks of the Museu de Arte Moderna, in Rio de Janeiro – including artworks from Pablo Picasso (“Cubist Head” and “Portait of Dora Maar”), Miró, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Ivan Serpa, Manabu Mabe e others – and all artworks showed in a big retrospective of artist Joaquin Torres García.

*    On January 30, 1979, a Varig 707 freighter, registration PP-VLU, disappeared over the Pacific Ocean thirty minutes after departing Tokyo, Japan. The captain had previously been involved in another major accident, that of Varig Flight 820 in 1973. No wreckage or remains were ever located. The aircraft was carrying 153 paintings by the Japanese Brazilian artist Manabu Mabe, worth approximately $1.24 million US.

*    “Study after Velázquez III” (1950), Francis Bacon. Third in a series of portraits after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1650. All three were thought destroyed by the artist until the first two surfaced 1999.

*    “Untitled Wall Relief”, by Craig Kauffman (1967), an acrylic lacquer on Plexiglas piece, fell off the wall and shattered on July 16, 2006 at the Pompidou Center of Paris.

*    Untitled piece by Peter Alexander (1971), an 8 ft. x 5 in. molded polyester resin work, fell and shattered in April 2006 at the Pompidou Center of Paris

*    The “Pearl Monument” (1982), which stood in the centre of the Pearl Roundabout, Bahrain. It was torn down by the Bahraini government on March 18, 2011 because it had been a focal point for protesters.

*    Anish Kapoor’s wood and cement sculpture “Hole and Vessel” (1984) was discovered missing from its storage unit in 2004.

*    Richard Serra’s 38-ton metal sculpture “Equal-Parallel/Guernica-Bengasi” (1986),”Equal-Parallel: Guernica-Bengasi”. Ministry of Education (Spain). Retrieved February 16, 2012. formerly displayed at the Reina Sofia museum, could not be located in 2006.

*    The “Goddess of Democracy” (1989) by students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, was destroyed by The People’s Liberation Army during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

*    Rachel Whiteread’s enormous sculpture “House” (1993) was destroyed by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets council on January 11, 1994.

*    Pablo Picasso’s painting The Painter was lost aboard Swissair Flight 111 when it crashed into the waters off Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on September 2, 1998.

*    Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc (1981) was dismantled and removed in 1989.

*    Hélio Oiticica’s almost whole collection (estimated at 2,000 works, or approximately 90%) was destroyed on October 16, 2009 in a fire at his brother’s house.

* Dan Narita’s painting Seeds was lost after last exhibited at The Mall Galleries as part of the Threadneedle Prize Exhibition in London 2012.

Works destroyed in the Murrah Building Bombing

In the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, many works of art were destroyed.
The Oklahoma City National Memorial displays art that survived the bombing.

Sky Ribbons: An Oklahoma Tribute, (1978) Fiber sculpture by Gerhardt Knodel

Columbines at Cascade Canyon, Photograph by Albert D. Edgar

Winter Scene, Photography by Curt Clyne

Morning Mist, Photograph by David Halpern

Charon’s Sentinels, Photograph by David Halpern

Soaring Currents, Sisal and rayon textile by Karen Chapnick

Monolith, Porcelain sculpture by Frank Simons

Through the Looking Glass, Wool Textile by Anna Burgress

Palm Tree Coil, Bronze sculpture by Jerry McMillan

An untitled acrylic sculpture by Fred Eversley was severely damaged, but survived the blast.

Works destroyed in the September 11 attacks

Many works of art were destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks when the World Trade Center buildings collapsed.

Ideogram (1967) stainless steel sculpture by James Rosati

Cloud Fortress (1975) a large, black granite piece by Japanese artist Masayuki Nagare, destroyed in the 9/11 rescue and recovery efforts.

The World Trade Center Tapestry a 20′ x 35′ tapestry by Joan Miró that hung in the South Tower Lobby.

Sky Gate, New York (1977–78) large wooden sculpture by Louise Nevelson
A memorial fountain for the victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing by Elyn Zimmerman

World Trade Center Stabile (1971) a 25′ red steel sculpture by Alexander Calder. Approximately 30% of the sculpture was recovered.

Some 300 sculptures and drawings by Auguste Rodin, part of the Cantor Fitzgerald collection.

Needle Tower (1968) by Kenneth Snelson.

Recollection Pond, a tapestry by Romare Bearden.

Path Mural, by Germaine Keller.

Commuter Landscape, a large mural by Cynthia Mailman.

Fan Dancing with the Birds, a mural by Hunt Slonem.

The Entablature Series by Roy Lichtenstein

Approximately 40,000 negatives of photographs by Jacques Lowe documenting the presidency of John F. Kennedy.

The Sphere, an abstract sculpture by Fritz Koenig, survived the collapse but was seriously damaged, and now serves as a memorial.

Countless other works of art and valuable artifacts, found in safe deposit boxes located throughout the towers, were also destroyed.
Two other sculptures were damaged, but not destroyed by the attacks. These are Red Cube by Isamu Noguchi and Joie de Vivre by Mark di Suvero, located down the street from the World Trade Center. They were repaired and still stand today.

Works destroyed in the Momart fire

Many works by Britartists in the Saatchi collection, as well as work by other artists in different collections, were destroyed in the Momart warehouse fire in Leyton, east London, on May 24, 2004.

Vertical Light by Patrick Heron (1957), and some 50 other paintings

Altair by Gillian Ayres (1989), and 17 other paintings

Craigie Horsfield’s black and white photograph of Barcelona, Carrer Muntaner (1996)

Hell by Jake and Dinos Chapman (1998 to 2000)

The Last Thing I Said To You Is Don’t Leave Me Here (“The Hut”) by Tracey Emin (1999)

Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995 (“The Tent”) by Tracey Emin

Mood Change One by Michael Craig-Martin

The Event by William Redgrave, a bronze triptych; about a third was salvaged by his son, Chris Redgrave.

Down Below, a sculpture by Sarah Lucas

Hedone’s (1996), Rust Never Sleeps (1996) and Trou Normand (1997), by Patrick Caulfield

Floater, by Gavin Turk

Sixteen paintings by Damien Hirst

Cyclops Cameo (1995), Opal (1996), and eight other works by Helen Chadwick

Nine works by Barry Flanagan

Clown, a gloss painting on wood and other works by Gary Hume

Afrobluff, and other works by Chris Ofili

Works by Paula Rego

Forty works by Adrian Heath.

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Categories ART

“LOST BUT NOT FORGOTTEN” – 3. LIST OF COMICS THAT WERE NEVER PUBLISHED

27 Aug

source : wikipedia.com

Stories, issues of limited/ongoing series, or even entire series which were written or promoted, and solicited for release but for whatever reason were never published. Some were eventually reprinted elsewhere or published in different forms.

Acclaim Comics :

* < Quantum and Woody #22-31 >
( this series was canceled by Acclaim after #17 (June 1998), and “uncanceled” fifteen months later; as a promotional gimmick, #32 (September 1999) was published to show how the story would have developed if the comic had never been canceled. In October 1999, the series resumed numbering with #18 and was intended to publish the “missing” issues. However, the title was cancelled with #21.)

* < Unity 2000 #4-6 >
( Only three issues of this 6-issue limited series were published before its cancellation )

Alternative Comics :

* < Detour #2 >
( Publisher Alternative Comics solicited Ed Brubaker’s Detour #2 in 2000, but it never appeared (the first issue had been published in 1997). In 2000, Brubaker promised that “the stories that would have made up the next two issues are being worked on in my disappearing spare time, and hopefully the whole thing will be released as a book of about 100 or so pages in a year or two.” Instead, Brubaker embarked in earnest on a mainstream comics writing career with Deadenders (Vertigo), whose dystopic future backdrop was similar to Detour’s.)

CrossGen Comics :

* CrossGen’s bankruptcy led to a number of titles — including “Sojourn”, “Negation War”, and “Brath” — being cancelled before completion. Several trade paperback collections were also cancelled due to the bankruptcy.

DC Comics :

* < Action Comics Annual #3 by Chris Claremont and Michael Golden >
( The original story for this annual, written by Chris Claremont, was meant to be published in 1990. According to Amazing Heroes Preview Special #10 (February 1990) “And the X-citing news is about the Action Comics Annual, due out this year. It’s written by none other than Marvel Mutant Man Chris Claremont, and drawn by not-often-seen Michael Golden. Watch for it.” An annual with this number was eventually released in 1991 as part of the Armageddon 2001 crossover event, but contained a different story and was written by Roger Stern. A Superman story by Claremont was eventually published as Superman / Wonder Woman: Whom Gods Destroy in 1997. It was drawn by Dusty Abell and Drew Geraci rather than Michael Golden.)

* < All Star Batgirl >
( This series was announced at the Toronto Comic Book Expo in 2006. Geoff Johns and J. G. Jones will work on the first six issues, which will present a connection between Barbara Gordon and Arkham Asylum, and a mystery to Batman on Batgirl, in Johns’ words, like Batman: The Long Halloween. The title is described as not taking place in the continuity of All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder.)

* < All Star Comics “The Will of William Wilson” >
( An unpublished Justice Society of America story from the 1940s. A good amount of artwork from this story survived and has been reprinted in various publications from TwoMorrows Publishing.)

* < All Star Wonder Woman >
( This series was confirmed at the San Diego Comic Con 2006, with Adam Hughes announced as writer and artist. Hughes intended to retell the character’s origin story, and described his approach to the series as an “iconic interpretation” of the character, but explained at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International that that project was “in the freezer” for the time being, due to the difficulty involved in both writing and illustrating himself. As of October 2010, a page on his website indicates that after the current Catwoman series ends with issue #82, Hughes will cease his DC cover work, and will focus on producing the six-issue All Star Wonder Woman series.)

* < Ambush Bug: Year None #6 >
( A six-issue limited series, it skipped issue #6 and concluded with issue #7 instead. There was an eleven-month gap between #5 (January 2009) and #7 (December 2009).)

* < Aquaman II miniseries >
( A miniseries by writer Neal Pozner and artist Craig Hamilton was published in 1986. A follow-up miniseries was planned but cancelled due to Hamilton’s difficulties with meeting deadlines.)

* < Batman: Dark Detective III >
( In 1977, writer Steve Englehart and artists Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin collaborated on a run of Batman stories in Detective Comics. A sequel miniseries titled Batman: Dark Detective was published in 2005. Englehart and Rogers planned a third series of stories but Rogers’ death on March 25, 2007 caused DC to cancel the project.)

* < Black Canary >
( A miniseries by writer Greg Weisman and artist Mike Sekowsky was planned in 1984. The first issue of the series was pencilled, but the project was ultimately shelved due to the character being used in writer/artist Mike Grell’s high profile Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters series. Elements from the ill-fated project were used for Weisman’s DC Showcase: Green Arrow short film.)

* < The DC Implosion >
( During the “DC Implosion”, several DC Comics titles were abruptly cancelled, even though a number of the series had issues already completed and ready to be published. Eventually, DC Comics reprinted the stories to secure their copyright, under the title Cancelled Comic Cavalcade, though this was a limited print run and was not available for sale. A few of the stories were also published in other DC comics titles, though some were re-edited prior to publication.)

* < Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1 >
( This book was already printed and ready to be released, but controversy over the story “Letitia Lerner, Superman’s Babysitter” led to the run being destroyed. DC destroyed all copies of the issue intended for the North American market but some were still distributed in Europe. In May 2001 the story was reprinted in the Bizarro Comics hardcover (ISBN 1-56389-779-2). In April 2003 a softcover edition of Bizarro Comics (ISBN 1-56389-958-2) followed. “Superman Jr. is No More!” was republished in Superman / Batman: Saga of the Super Sons (November 2007).)

* < Emerald Twilight >
( The original storyline for “Emerald Twilight” (which was to run in Green Lantern (vol. 3) #48-50) involved a conflict between two separate groups of Guardians of the Universe, and members of the Green Lantern Corps choosing sides. Though this story was advertised and even solicited, it wasn’t considered interesting enough by editor Kevin Dooley, and was replaced with a different story that had Hal Jordan becoming Parallax and destroying the Corps. The original version of “Emerald Twilight” has not been published.)

* < The Flash Volume 3 #13 >
( In response to a fan question on its blog “The Source’s” Flashpoint Friday feature, DC announced that May 2011’s The Flash #12 would be the final issue of the series. At the time, no other details were provided.)

* < Freaks by John Byrne >
( Freaks appeared in a lithography plate published within the History of the DC Universe Portfolio in 1986. Byrne had originally pitched the series to DC, but the series for some reason never surfaced. With some changes, Byrne’s concept fit in with his 2112 work to become the John Byrne’s Next Men series published by Dark Horse Comics.)

* < Hellblazer #141 – “Shoot.” >
( by Warren Ellis and Phil Jimenez was planned to deal with high school teenagers killing each other with firearms at school. After the Columbine High School massacre, DC editoral asked Ellis to make changes to the story before publication. In response, Ellis stated “I therefore requested that DC Vertigo either make those changes themselves and remove my name from the work, or, in the preferred scenario, not publish the work at all. Rather it go unseen than be released in a compromised form. To their credit, DC Vertigo have chosen to not release ‘Shoot’ at all.” The issue was eventually published in Vertigo Resurrected in 2010.>

* < Holy Terror, Batman! >
( A proposed 122-page graphic novel by Frank Miller, announced in 2006 but no longer a project associated with the Batman character or DC Comics. In 2010 Miller has said that he is no longer working on the project. However, he also stated in June 2010 that Holy Terror was in progress, but without Batman. The book was eventually released by Legendary Comics as Holy Terror.)

* < JLA/Avengers >
( In 1983, Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway were to be the co-writers of a JLA/Avengers intercompany crossover drawn by George Pérez Editorial disputes between DC and Marvel caused the project’s cancellation. It wasn’t until 2003 that a crossover between the two teams was published, albeit in a completely different story by Kurt Busiek and Pérez. All of the original story’s existing pencilled art was published in the hardcover collection of the 2003 JLA/Avengers crossover.)

* < The Joker #10 >
( The letter page of The Joker #9 (Sept.-Oct. 1976) mentions that Martin Pasko was writing a story titled “99 and 44/100 Percent Dead!” to appear in The Joker #10, which was never published. In the end notes of The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told (1989) it is noted that The Joker editor Julius Schwartz had no recollection of this story ever being completed. A cover for issue #10 was drawn by Ernie Chan.)

* < Kobra #8 >
( A Kobra vs. Batman story intended for this issue was published in DC Special Series #1 (September 1977) instead.)

* < Larry Harmon’s Laurel and Hardy #2 >
( In 1972, DC published a single issue of a comic book series based on the Laurel and Hardy cartoon series produced by Larry Harmon. The cover for the unpublished second issue appears in The DC Vault.)

* < The Legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Gerry Conway and Nestor Redondo >
( House advertisements in DC Comics cover-dated September 1975 promoted a four part King Arthur series to be published in the treasury edition format.)

* < Marvel and DC Present The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans #2 >
( A sequel to the popular X-Men/New Teen Titans crossover was initially announced in the letters page of New Teen Titans #29 and scheduled for release around Christmas 1983. It was planned to feature Marv Wolfman as writer and George Pérez as artist, with the villains in the story being Brother Blood and The Hellfire Club. Plans for the book were eventually cancelled because of the problems that affected the JLA/Avengers crossover.)

* < Meet Angel #8 >
( The Angel and the Ape series changed its title to Meet Angel with its seventh and final issue (November–December 1969). An eighth issue had been written and drawn and this story would be published in Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-34 (February–March 1975) (“Christmas with the Super-Heroes”).

* < Metropolis by Steve Gerber and Frank Miller >
( The “line name” for a proposed revamp of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.)

* < Nuclear >
( An unpublished Golden Age Wonder Woman story introduced the villain Nuclear. Even though it wasn’t published, a later story from Wonder Woman #43 (Sept.-Oct. 1950)(“Nuclear Returns!”) refers to it. Years later, Roy Thomas came up with his own introduction story for Nuclear in the pages of All-Star Squadron. Since then, original artwork from the first story has surfaced.)

* < Pandora Pann >
( Most of the preview story for this series by writer Len Wein and artist Ross Andru (scheduled to be printed in Saga of the Swamp Thing #5) was pencilled, but for unknown reasons the series never materialized.)

* < Power Squad >
( An all-female superteam named the “Power Squad” was proposed by Jack C. Harris and Trevor Von Eeden but the idea was not approved for publication.)

* < The Redeemer >
( Joe Kubert’s Christian allegorical tale of man endlessly resurrected. The miniseries was previewed in Amazing Heroes #34 but never released.)

* < Robotech Defenders #3 >
( This limited series based on the Revell line of plastic models was originally scheduled as a three-part mini-series in 1985. It was reduced to the first normal-sized issue and a 32-page second issue with no advertisements.)

* < Sandman #7 >
( The story by writer Michael Fleisher and artist Jack Kirby was originally scheduled to be published in Sandman #7 in 1976 and then scheduled as part of Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #61 in 1978. Both series were cancelled before these issues were published. The story was eventually printed in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 (Fall 1978) and in The Best of DC #22 (March 1982).)

* < Showcase Presents: Secret Society of Super Villains >
( The Secret Society of Super Villains series was scheduled to be collected into a trade paperback featuring issues #1-17 (520 pages, ISBN 1-4012-1587-4) but the project was canceled. DC later solicited a hardcover collection containing the same material, which was released August 17, 2011.)

* < Sonic Disruptors #8-12 >
( This 12-issue limited series by writer Mike Baron and artist Barry Crain was cancelled after issue #7 due to poor sales.)

* < Spectre written by Steve Gerber >
( Gerber was to have been the writer of the 1980s relaunch of the Spectre series but scheduling difficulties led DC to replace him with Doug Moench.
Starman (vol. 1) #46 — Solicited as the last issue of the first Starman series, the title was cancelled after issue #45 instead.)

* < Stormwatch: Team Achilles #24 >
( The series’ cancellation was announced for #24; however, writer Micah Wright had recently become very controversial, and #23 was the last issue published. The script for #24 is available on Wright’s site.)

* < Sugar and Spike vol. 2 >
( The series was published in the United States from 1956 through 1971 for 98 issues, when due to creator Sheldon Mayer’s failing eyesight that limited his drawing ability, Sugar and Spike ceased to appear. Later, after cataract surgery restored his eyesight, Mayer returned to writing and drawing Sugar and Spike stories, continuing to do so until his death in 1991; these stories appeared in overseas markets and only a few have been reprinted in the United States. The American reprints appeared in the digest sized comics series The Best of DC #29, 41, 47, 58, 65, and 68. Sales on the “Sugar and Spike” issues of The Best of DC were strong enough that DC announced plans for a new ongoing series featuring the characters. The project was never launched for unknown reasons.)

* < Superman graphic novel by Barry Windsor-Smith >
( A graphic novel by Barry Windsor-Smith entitled “An Evening With Superman” was originally announced by DC in 1998 but has not been published as of 2012. Superman: The Complete History – The Life and Times of the Man of Steel features an excerpt of this story.)

* < Superman 3-D >
( According to DC’s promotional giveaway brochure DC Releases #46 (March 1988), a Superman 3-D one-shot was planned for 1988. It was to be written and pencilled by John Byrne and inked by Ty Templeton with 3-D effects by Ray Zone. A “major new Superman foe” named “Tantrum” was to have been introduced. Byrne and Zone would later collaborate on a Batman 3-D graphic novel. A Superman 3-D one-shot was published in December 1998 by a different creative team.)

* < Swamp Thing #88-91 >
( Rick Veitch’s original story for issue #88 (where Swamp Thing meets Jesus Christ during a time-travel story arc) was cancelled by DC Comics; this caused Veitch to quit the title before finishing the storyline (set to run through issue #91). Another writer, Doug Wheeler, had to complete the story but went in a different direction than Veitch had planned.)

* < Twilight of the Superheroes >
( A company wide crossover and attendant maxi series proposed by Alan Moore in the late 80s prior to his public split with DC. The series imagined a dark future where various superhero clans warred for global dominance. Moore’s split with DC, as well as the very dark nature of the story, meant that the series never got beyond the proposal stage, although a number of elements Moore suggested were later worked into ongoing series. Moore’s proposal was leaked on the internet in the early 1990s.)

* < Wonder Woman: Bondage >
( A proposed project by Bill Sienkiewicz and Frank Miller. Sienkiewicz described it as “perhaps a bit over the top, but I think Frank and I invited that. So was the idea for the series in very basic broad stroke discussions between Frank and I, with some input from then-DC editor Bob Schreck.”)

Eclipse Comics :

* < Miracleman #25-34 and Miracleman: Triumphant >
( Because of the bankruptcy of Eclipse Comics, the last published issue of Miracleman was #24. Issues #25-28, which would have completed the storyline The Silver Age, weren’t printed. The follow-up storyline, The Dark Age (projected for Miracleman #29-34), and a spinoff series, Miracleman: Triumphant, were also never published. Pages from issue #25 and Miracleman: Triumphant #1 have been reprinted in Kimota! The Miracleman Companion by TwoMorrows Publishing.)

Eternity Comics :

* < The Uncensored Mouse #3 >
( A third issue of this series (which reprinted classic Mickey Mouse comic strips) was ready to go to press until a lawsuit filed by The Walt Disney Company put a stop to it.)

First Comics :

* < Classics Illustrated: Julius Caesar >
( In 1990, artist George Pérez was scheduled to draw an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The series was cancelled before Pérez could start work on the story.)

* < Time2 Vol. 3 >
( Writer/artist Howard Chaykin produced a graphic novel series called Time² which consisted of two graphic novels (Time2: The Epiphany (ISBN 0-915419-07-6) and Time2: The Satisfaction of Black Mariah (ISBN 0-915419-23-8)). During a 1987 interview originally published in Amazing Heroes #132, Chaykin described plans for a third graphic novel. “It’s probably going to be grossly different from the first two, because I’m taking things in another direction,” Chaykin said at the time. “I want to do a story that is both very funny … and at the same time very, very ugly. Really nasty and unpleasant. Because frankly, it’s the place to do that sort of thing.” Although Chaykin hoped it would be available in summer 1988, the third book was never released.)

Image Comics :

* < 1963 Annual #1 >
( A followup to the Image Comics series 1963, by Alan Moore and Jim Lee. Various issues with Moore, Lee, and Image itself led to the Annual being unfinished.)

* < Brigade #23-24 >
( Issue #25 published out of order, between #9 and 10. There are no issues #23 and 24.)

* < Crimson Plague >
( A science fiction story by writer-artist George Pérez about an alien with ultra-toxic blood, the first issue was published in June 1997 by the now defunct Event Comics. In June 2000, the original first issue was re-published by Gorilla Comics with additional material and pages, with a follow up issue published in September 2000. Due to the extreme high costs of being a self-publisher, which ended up being a financial burden (and putting himself in major debt), Pérez ended Crimson Plague a second time and it is unknown if he intends to do anything else with the comic. George Pérez Storyteller includes artwork from the unpublished third issue of Crimson Plague.)

* < Section Zero >
( Published in 2000 by Gorilla Comics, an imprint of Image Comics. It was written by Karl Kesel with artwork by Tom Grummett. Gorilla Comics was intended to be a creator owned company financed by a comics related website, eHero.com. The website proved to be a financial failure, leaving the creators to personally finance their own books. Along with the other Gorilla Comics creators, Kesel and Grummett attempted to continue the series they started, but these efforts proved to be unsuccessful. The three issues of Section Zero that were published were dated June 2000, July 2000, and September 2000. A fourth issue was solicited, but was never published. In January 2012, Kesel announced that he and Grummett would be relaunching Section Zero as a webcomic on the Mad Genius Comics website. The previously published stories are being posted on the site and new material will be added as it is completed.)

Mad Love :

* < Big Numbers #3-12 >
( This Alan Moore/Bill Sienkiewicz limited series only saw two issues published before it ended. Pages of #3 have surfaced on the Internet.)

Marvel Comics :

* < Claws of the Cat #5 >
( A fifth issue of the series was drawn by Ramona Fradon but the title was canceled due to lack of sales on previous issues.)

* < Daredevil by Frank Miller and Walt Simonson >
( After completing the “Born Again” arc, Frank Miller intended to produce a two-part story with artist Walt Simonson but the collaboration was never completed and remains unpublished.)

* < Doctor Strange drawn by Frank Miller >
( A house advertisement for Doctor Strange appeared in Marvel Comics cover-dated February 1981. It stated “Watch for the new adventures of Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme – – as mystically conjured by Roger Stern and Frank Miller!”. Miller’s only contribution to the series would be the cover for Doctor Strange #46 (April 1981). Other commitments prevented Miller from working on the series.)

* < Fantastic Four #102 original version >
( The story by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby originally intended for Fantastic Four #102 (September 1970) was not published. Some of the artwork would appear in issue #108 (March 1971) but the rest of the story was not used. Marvel published this “lost” story in Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure (April 2008) )

* < Fantastic Four Fathers and Sons >
( This graphic novel was mentioned in Marvel Age Annual in 1988 but never published. It was to have been written by Danny Fingeroth and drawn by Mark Bright. Bright left the project after completing only a few pages of artwork and was replaced by Al Milgrom.)

* < Conclusion of “The Last Galactus Story” >
( Writer-penciler John Byrne and inker Terry Austin produced “The Last Galactus Story” as a serial in the anthology comics-magazine Epic Illustrated #26-34 (Oct. 1984 – Feb. 1986). Nine of a scheduled 10 installments appeared. Each ran six pages, except part eight, which ran 12. The magazine was canceled with issue #34, leaving the last chapter unpublished and the story unfinished. Byrne later revealed on his website that the conclusion would have seen a dying Galactus releasing his power, causing a new big bang and transforming his herald Nova into the Galactus of the next universe.)

* < Marvel Super Special #7 >
( An adaptation of the film Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by writer David Anthony Kraft and artists George Pérez and Jim Mooney was promoted on the “Bullpen Bulletins” page in Marvel Comics cover-dated January 1979. It was never published in the U.S. “because the book was late and the movie proved to be a commercial failure,” according to a contemporaneous news account, which added, without substantiation, that, “Reportedly, Marvel’s adaptation was published in Japan.” The material was published in France by Arédit in 1979 )

* < Ms. Marvel #24 and #25 >
( Ms. Marvel #24 and #25 were written and drawn but the series was cancelled with issue #23 (April 1979). Ms. Marvel #23 would have seen the introduction of the super-villainess (and Mystique’s lover) Destiny and #24 would have seen the first appearance of Pyro, Avalanche, and future X-Man Rogue. Destiny, Avalanche, and Pyro would instead debut in Uncanny X-Men #141 and Rogue would debut in Avengers Annual #10. As Ms Marvel and Mystique were assimilated into the X-Men book by Chris Claremont, references were made to the unpublished issues and Claremont’s original plans for the series had it not been cancelled along with editorial footnotes implying that the unpublished issues and storyline would be published one day in the pages of Marvel Fanfare. They would instead be published in Marvel Super-Heroes vol. 2 #10 (July 1992) and #11 (October 1992). with an additional ten pages written and drawn by Simon Furman and Andrew Wildman to wrap up the storyline.

* < Open Space #5 >
( Open Space was a science-fiction anthology series. Alex Ross’ first work for Marvel was to have been printed in issue #5 but the title was cancelled with issue #4 (August 1990). Ross’ story was printed in 1999 as a special supplement to Wizard’s Alex Ross Special.)

* < Ozma of Oz >
( In 1975, MGM’s Marvelous Wizard of Oz was the first joint publishing venture between DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Marvel then published an adaptation of The Marvelous Land of Oz. A full page house advertisement in the second treasury promised an Ozma of Oz adaptation but it was never published.)

* < The Prisoner >
( In the “Bullpen Bulletins” page in Marvel Comics cover-dated July 1976, Marvel announced a comic book based on The Prisoner, to be written by Steve Englehart and drawn by a then-unchosen artist and scheduled to be “starting this summer”. The artist assigned to the project would be Gil Kane. When Jack Kirby returned to Marvel, the property was transferred to him. A test issue was put together but never completed. All 17 pages were scripted and pencilled by Kirby, but only parts were lettered and inked, by Mike Royer. Original artwork from this comic still exists and some of it has been published in the comic book fanzine The Jack Kirby Collector.)

* < Questprobe #4-12 >
( Originally intended as a 12-issue limited series, this video game tie-in was canceled after issue #3 (November 1985) due to Adventure International’s bankruptcy. The story intended for issue #4, featuring the X-Men, was published in Marvel Fanfare #33 (July 1987).)

* < Spectacular Spider-Man magazine #3 >
( The Spectacular Spider-Man was a two-issue magazine published by Marvel in 1968, as an experiment in entering the black-and-white comic-magazine market. A next-issue box at the end of issue #2 promoted the planned contents of the unrealized issue #3, “The Mystery of the TV Terror”.)

* < Strange Tales (vol. 4) #3-4 >
( The stories, J.M. DeMatteis’s Man-Thing and Paul Jenkins’s Werewolf by Night were bought and solicited, but never illustrated nor published. DeMatteis wrapped his Man-Thing run in Peter Parker: Spider-Man Annual ’99 and included a 2-page synopsis of the yet to be published 3rd and 4th issues. Man-Thing (vol. 3) ran for eight issues in 1997-1998, and Werewolf by Night for six issues in 1998. They were merged due to low sales. Marvel’s parent company at the time was not willing to publish anything not making a profit, and cut off several series in mid-story arc, such as Ghost Rider (vol. 3 (Daniel Ketch). Strange Tales was intended to be a new line comparable to DC’s Vertigo, but the parent company thought comic books were for kids and would not allow it, which caused a Satana series to be scrapped entirely even after work on the first issue had been completed. Ghost Rider (vol. 3) #94 was finally published in 2006 to tie in with the release of the movie. The Strange Tales comics remain unpublished.)

* < The Thing limited series by Barry Windsor-Smith >
( The Thing ongoing series was cancelled with issue #36 (June 1986). The letters column of the last issue mentioned an upcoming limited series by Barry Windsor-Smith. He had previously written and drawn a Thing story in Marvel Fanfare #15 (July 1984). The limited series was never published. In January 2006, Windsor-Smith announced on the website Comic Book Galaxy that he was in negotiations with Marvel to publish his Thing story as a graphic novel. As of 2012, it remains unpublished.)

* < Void Indigo #3-6 >
( Cancelled due to reactions to its portrayal of extreme violence.)

* < Warlock #16 >
( Warlock was cancelled with issue #15 (November 1976). A sixteenth issue had been partially drawn by Alan Weiss but the artwork was lost in a New York City taxicab.)

Milestone Comics :

* < Fade miniseries >
( Ivan Velez Jr. wrote an outline and three issues for a miniseries starring the character Fade from the team book Blood Syndicate which would have explored the character’s childhood, sexuality, and changing powers. Before it could go beyond the proposal stage, the parent title was canceled due to low sales and the company ceased regular publication.)

Topps Comics :

* < Victory #2-5 >
( Topps Comics attempted to revive the Captain Victory character as part of planned 5-issue mini-series, which only lasted one issue before Topps cancelled all of the ‘Kirbyverse’ books in 1994. The only issue is dated June 1994 and was a part of a more complex project named the “Secret City Saga”.)

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Categories BOOKS,MUSIC , MOVIE , THEATRE, ARTISTS, and MUSICIANS.

“LOST BUT NOT FORGOTTEN” – 2. LOST TELEVISION BROADCASTS

26 Aug

source : wikipedia.com

A significant amount of early television programming is not lost but rather was never recorded in the first place. Early broadcasting in all genres was live, sometimes performed repeatedly, because there was no means to record the broadcast or because content itself was reasoned to have little monetary or historical value. In the United Kingdom, much early programming was lost due to contractual demands by the actors’ union to limit the rescreening of recorded performances.
Apart from Phonovision experiments by John Logie Baird, and some 280 rolls of 35mm film containing a number of Paul Nipkow television station broadcastings, no recording of transmissions from 1939 or earlier are known to exist.

In 1947, Kinescope films became a viable method of recording broadcasts, but programs were only sporadically filmed or preserved. Tele-snaps of British television broadcasts also began in 1947 but are necessarily incomplete. Magnetic videotape technologies became a viable method to record and distribute material in 1956. Televised programming (especially that which was not considered viable for reruns) was still considered disposable, however, and what was recorded was routinely destroyed by wiping and reusing the tapes, until the rise of the home video industry in the late 1970s.
The ability for home viewers to record programming was extremely limited; although a home viewer could record the video of a broadcast by kinescope recording onto 8 mm film throughout television history or record the audio of a broadcast onto audiotape beginning in the 1950s, one could generally not capture both on the same medium until super-8 debuted in the 1960s. (Attempting to film a television broadcast using the kinescope process, because it required positioning the camera squarely in the line of viewing of the screen and thus blocked the view of other people trying to watch, also was quite disruptive to the television viewing experience and is thus exceptionally rare among home movies. Audio recordings, which do not require obstructing the view of other viewers, are more common, and numerous copies of otherwise lost television broadcasts exist.) The mass availability of home video recording in the late 1970s and early 1980s was also a benefit for television producers and archivers; because video was now economical enough for even a home viewer to afford, networks could now afford to save all of their programming as well.

LIST OF TELEVISION BROADCAST

List of The list of lost television broadcasts is composed of mostly early television programs and series that for various reasons cannot be accounted for in personal collections or studio archives.

Australia

* This practice of reusing videotape continued well into the 1970s: Many episodes of the pioneering Australian prime time soap opera Number 96 are lost.

Other episodes missing from archives are many early episodes of Countdown, Bellbird and Young Talent Time. Episodes of Hey Hey it’s Saturday have many episodes missing. Some were retrieved from people home taping these things. Portions of Young Talent Time have also survived this way.
Many other music shows have also been wiped aside from Countdown. Recovery of these things are often more by chance or home video.
No footage is known to exist of the Melbourne version of Tell the Truth

General lack of repeats of 1950s and 1960s Australian series makes it difficult to know what is extant and what is lost. For example, there is no information available as whether any episodes still exist of Take That (1957-1959), sometimes considered to the first Australian television sitcom. Information on archival status is also lacking for other 1950s-era series like The Isador Goodman Show (1956-1957), It Pays to Be Funny (1957-1958), Sweet and Low (1959), among others.

Europe

* The first edition ever of the Eurovision Song Contest of 1956 was broadcast live and never recorded, and only a sound recording of the radio transmission has survived from the original broadcast. The ninth edition of 1964 was indeed recorded on tape, but fire destroyed the copy, and it’s unknown if any other TV station in Europe has another copy. Only small portions of the original broadcast and audio from the radio transmission have survived.
The 23rd, 24th and 25th edition of Italian Sanremo Festival of 1973, 1974 and 1975 have been lost in Italian Public Broadcasting archives and never recovered. Only some portions of the original tapes have survived in the Daily News Archives. The whole 17th edition of 1967 is missing as well supposedly handed to the public authorities because of the investigation of Luigi Tenco’s suicide. The 26th edition of 1976 was missed by the Italians but it could be recovered in the Spanish Broadcasting Company’s vaults, since it was broadcasted all around Europe and recorded by the Spaniards.
In Spain, hundreds of episodes from the internationally versioned show Un, dos, tres… responda otra vez, mainly from the first two seasons (1972–1973 and 1976–1978), including the first episode of the first season, are lost or were destroyed. Only 4 episodes out of 54 from the first season and 12 out of 83 from the second season are known to survive. The following seasons from the third to the fifth one (1982–1986) are also incomplete, but not as dramatically diminished as the previous seasons. The sixth season of 1987 is first fully located and preserved one. Since Spanish Television archives were not cataloged until 1987, and there are thousands of tapes in kilometers of shelves of unknown uncataloged content, there could be more episodes there than what is preserved today (the last previously thought lost then found episode from the first season was just discovered in 2005). Also, some of the lost episodes of seasons three, four and five exist either complete or portions on home video recordings by the viewers.
1970s-era Dutch series The Eddy-Go-Round Show hosted by Eddy Becker, despite featuring high-profile guests, is reported to have been largely erased by the broadcaster it aired on, though a short section featuring Swedish pop group ABBA performing I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do was later uncovered on a tape recorded by a home viewer. An additional episode was later uncovered as the host had kept a copy himself, and was later re-broadcast on a Dutch cable channel in 2012.

United Kingdom

* Lost forever are early BBC-created programs from the 1930s and 1940s like Telecrimes, Pinwright’s Progress, The Disorderly Room, Sports Review, Theatre Parade, and the play Wasp’s Nest. The only visual evidence of these programmes today consists of still photographs.

All recordings of the early televised Francis Durbridge serials from 1952 to 1959 were completely destroyed, and the first two (Broken Horseshoe and Operation Diplomat) were never recorded.

Only one episode survived from the 1961 TV Series Call Oxbridge 2000.

Four of the six episodes of The Quatermass Experiment, Britain’s first science fiction television programme aimed at an adult audience, were never recorded; the two existing episodes are the oldest BBC recordings of any fictional series today.

The Madhouse on Castle Street, a 1963 BBC teleplay starring a then-unknown Bob Dylan, is considered lost. It was erased in 1968, and despite attempts by the British Film Institute to recover it, a telerecorded copy has still not been found as of 2009.

In autumn 1967, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons had made such impact on viewers of the show that the producers of ATV’s Saturday evening live game show The Golden Shot decided for their Christmas special to dedicate the show to Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. The show was presented by Bob Monkhouse. The Golden Shot consisted of a number of shooting games where viewers using their telephone directed a blindfolded marksman to fire his crossbow at illuminated apples attached to illustrated backgrounds. For the Captain Scarlet edition, the target board featured individual painted scenes from the TV series The Mysterons Complex, Angel Interceptors, Spectrum Helicopter and the Angel Interceptors, Spectrum Helicopter and the Angels exiting the Amber Room on their injector seats. Captain Scarlet was the star guest (designated Golden Partner) the puppet of Captain Scarlet say at Colonel White’s desk whilst Francis Matthews supplied the voice off- camera. A musical performance was supplied by “The Spectrum” who sang their latest hit song “Headin for a Heatwave”, the hosts Anne Aston and Carol Dilworth wore Angel Uniforms. The show was originally broadcast live On Saturday 23 December 1967, ATV London region at 8:35pm. It was then shown the next day at 1:05pm on ATV Midlands region. Since these airings all the archive footage of this show has been wiped.

Many early music programs, such as Ready Steady Go and (until the mid-1970s, most episodes of) Top of the Pops are lost, so many significant television appearances—such as The Beatles’ last live television performance in 1966, and most appearances of Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett—are unavailable.

106 black and white episodes of the BBC sci-fi show Doctor Who, particularly from the tenures of William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton (the first two Doctors), do not exist in the BBC’s archives, though they have an ongoing appeal for help from viewers who may have recorded the shows during their original airings. Audio recordings exist for all of the lost episodes, however, all of which have been released commercially by the BBC; two episodes of the serial The Invasion (which survive only in audio form) were reconstructed using animation for the serial’s DVD release in 2006. The BBC also holds many extant clips from the lost episodes ranging from such sources as an 8 mm camera, censored clips physically cut from the episodes, insert shots, and clips shown on 1960s and 1970s programmes (most notably Blue Peter). As recently as late 2011 (when one episode each from Galaxy 4 and The Underwater Menace was discovered) occasional lost episodes have continued to be discovered.

The BBC wiped many editions of Not Only… But Also, starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore from its archives in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as it did with many other programmes. Cook and Moore had even allegedly offered to pay for the cost of preservation and buy new videotapes so that the old tapes would not need to be reused, but this offer was rejected. Some telerecordings of the black and white episodes survive, but all of the videotaped footage from the colour series was wiped, so that the only surviving colour sketches are on 16mm film inserts.

Many other BBC shows are missing from the archives, including the BBC studio footage from the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landings. Many series, such as football-themed soap opera United!, are missing in their entirety, while others only survive in fragments such as A for Andromeda, a science fiction series that was Julie Christie’s first major role. Also missing are episodes of Dad’s Army, Hancock’s Half Hour, Doomwatch, Out of the Unknown, Dixon of Dock Green, Z-Cars, and many others. In an interview in the 2009 documentary Monty Python: Almost the Truth, Terry Gilliam claims to have purchased all of the Monty Python’s Flying Circus tapes from the BBC when he was informed that they were about to be wiped.

Most of the archives of two ITV contractors Associated British Corporation (ABC) and Associated-Rediffusion were destroyed in the 1970s after they were merged to become Thames Television. Associated-Rediffusion’s archive suffered considerably more damage than Associated British Corporation’s, leaving little of No Hiding Place, The Rat Catchers, and other programmes. Almost all of the entire first series of The Avengers was erased shortly after transmission.

The original black-and-white recording of the premiere episode of the British series Upstairs, Downstairs (1970–1975) does not exist in any form with the possible exception of a few stills and the location footage which features at the start of the shot-in-color rerecording of the premiere episode. The original recording took place on November 13, 1970, and was in monochrome owing to a dispute with studio technicians, who refused to work with colour recording equipment as part of a work to rule. The following five episodes were also recorded in monochrome before the dispute ended with the recording of episode 6 in color on February 12, 1971. After the entire thirteen-episode season run had been recorded, it was decided to rerecord the first episode in color to gain the highest possible audience for its first UK transmission and to help with overseas sales. The rerecording took place on May 21, 1971, and the series’ UK debut was on October 10, 1971. The original monochrome recording was never transmitted and was wiped. All of the other five black-and-white episodes from series one survive.

Most editions of the controversial and anarchic British children’s Saturday morning television series Tiswas were transmitted live without any official recording and many of the original master tapes of such editions as did get recorded by the broadcaster were wiped or left to deteriorate after the series was canceled in 1982. When a series of Tiswas highlight compilation tapes was released on video in the early 1990s (followed in 2006 by a DVD), much of the footage appeared to have been culled from the off-air recordings of private archivists.

United States

* The debut broadcast of The Ed Sullivan Show (then called Toast of the Town), from June 20, 1948, is considered lost. The episode featured the first television appearance of the comedy act of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

Nearly the entire film archive of the DuMont Television Network (1946–1956), consisting of approximately 175 television series, are missing, presumed destroyed. From the ten years of this network, only about 100 kinescope and film episodes of DuMont series survive at the Library of Congress, UCLA Film and Television Archive, the Paley Center for Media in New York, Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications, on YouTube or Internet Archive, or in private collections. In 1996, early television actress Edie Adams testified at a hearing in front of a panel of the Library of Congress on the preservation of American television and video, that little value was given to the DuMont film archive by the 1970s, and that all the remaining kinescoped episodes of DuMont series were loaded into three trucks and dumped into Upper New York Bay.

The Louisiana Hayride television program, broadcast in Shreveport, Louisiana and other local areas, which featured the first television appearance of Elvis Presley. Only an audio recording taken of Presley singing, “I Forgot to Remember” on the program has survived. Original broadcast date was March 5th 1955.

None of the episodes of the 1954–55 The Vampira Show, the first television horror movie show, were ever preserved.

The 1957 syndicated cartoon Colonel Bleep has approximately half of its episodes still missing. The entire master archive was stolen in the early 1970s, never to be found, and the current collection is taken from the various tapes sent out to individual stations, approximately half of which have been found.

The 1957 CBS production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Julie Andrews was believed to be lost for years. It was rediscovered in the late 1990s, but only in black-and-white kinescope; the original color broadcast has been lost.

Almost all of NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jack Paar and the first ten years (1962–1972) hosted by Johnny Carson were taped over by the network and no longer exist. The videotape was being used repeatedly, hence the reason that Carson’s Tonight Show picture looked muddy during broadcast in the late 1960s. Selected sequences from the 1962–1972 era survive and were often replayed by Carson himself (particularly in the months preceding his retirement in 1992) and have been released to home video. Some Paar episodes also survive and have been released to DVD.

As of 2011, 1968’s Super Bowl II is the only Super Bowl without any surviving telecast recording. A nearly complete color tape of Super Bowl I was discovered in 2005, but kept secret for nearly five years; portions of telecasts up through Super Bowl V are either missing or only exist in black-and-white. NFL Films, the league’s official filmmaker, produced their own copies (at a higher quality than a live television broadcast could produce at the time) of the games for posterity.

With home VCRs being uncommon until the mid-1980s, it is unlikely that lost television episodes exist in the collections of individuals, though this occasionally happens. Home audio recordings, however, were relatively common at the time, and audio recordings of these episodes are somewhat more common. One well-known example of an early home video recording being the only surviving footage of an event is a clip of John Lennon visiting the announcers’ booth during a 1974 Monday Night Football broadcast. ABC lost the footage of this event, but a private collector’s copy appears in the Beatles Anthology.

Another such example occurred with the Sergio Leone film A Fistful of Dollars. When it was originally broadcast in the United States in 1975, an alternate opening was shot to meet the standards and practices guidelines of the network. This opening was subsequently lost by the network, but had been taped by a fan of the film and was placed on the special edition DVD.

Most US daytime soap opera episodes broadcast before 1978 have been lost. The status of episodes, however, varies widely from show to show:

Soaps produced by Procter & Gamble Productions, including Search for Tomorrow, Guiding Light, As the World Turns, The Edge of Night, and Another World began preserving their episodes in 1978. A few scattered episodes, mostly black and white kinescopes, of these series exist from the 1950s, 1960s, and early to mid-1970s. The CBS soaps Love of Life and The Secret Storm, as well as several short-lived shows, suffered the same fate.

ABC’s One Life to Live and All My Children were originally owned by their creator, Agnes Nixon, who chose to archive all episodes. However, early episodes of AMC were saved as black-and-white kinescopes despite being produced and telecast in color. ABC purchased the shows in late 1974; different sources report that Nixon’s archive was either lost in a fire or erased. A few black-and-white kinescopes of both series’ early years exist, as well as a few color episodes. ABC began full archiving of these soaps at Nixon’s insistence when they expanded from 30 minutes to an hour—AMC in 1977, and OLTL in 1978.

Most 1963–1970 episodes of ABC’s General Hospital survive because the series was then owned by Selmur Productions. Few episodes from 1970–1977 were saved. Dark Shadows, which ran from 1966–1971 and was produced by Dan Curtis Productions, exists in its entirety except for one episode, for which an audio recording exists. Ryan’s Hope premiered in 1975, several years before ABC began saving all of its daytime programming, but exists in its entirety as it was originally owned by Labine-Mayer Productions.

Dark Shadows created by Dan Curtis, which ran from 1966 to 1971, has the distinction of being one of the few soap operas to have nearly all of its original episodes preserved. As a result of kinescope, many earlier episodes of which the master film was lost are still available. However, episode #1219 was lost but reconstructed with an audio recording for home video release.

Two long-running soaps have full archives: Days of our Lives, which premiered in 1965, and The Young and the Restless, which premiered in 1973. Both series were originally distributed by Screen Gems.

The original slow-scan TV footage of the first manned moon landing in 1969, believed to be of significantly higher quality than the standards-converted version broadcast on TV, is missing from NASA’s archives. This, among other things, has led to many conspiracy theories about the landings, though both NASA and non-NASA authorities have repeatedly debunked any claims of foul play. See Apollo 11 missing tapes.

Almost all daytime game shows from the 1970s and prior have been destroyed. CBS’s archives begin in 1972, ABC’s in 1978, and NBC’s in 1980. A handful of producers (most notably Goodson-Todman) did arrange for the preservation of their shows even during the tape-recycling period.

The original Jeopardy! (NBC, 1964–1975) is said to be lost, although 24 episodes are known to exist.

Approx. 130 episodes of The Hollywood Squares (NBC, 1966–1981) were broadcast on Game Show Network, mostly the 1968 NBC nighttime version and 1971–1976 syndicated episodes; NBC allegedly destroyed the remainder of when it was announced that GSN acquired the rights to the Squares episodes.

Snap Judgment (NBC, 1967–1969) is completely destroyed, with only one episode existing on audio tape.

The Big Showdown (ABC, 1974–1975) has only two episodes surviving, along with a bonus round clip.

Second Chance (ABC, 1977) has no episodes remaining except for Pilot #3 and a general series episode on video, and the finale on audio tape.

High Rollers (NBC and syndication, 1974–1976 and 1978–1980) has only twelve episodes remaining: two from the first run and ten from the second, including the finale.
Winning Streak (NBC, 1974–1975) has only two episodes remaining, plus the opening portion of a third.

Eye Guess (NBC, 1966–1969) has only one and a half episodes remaining.

The nighttime version of The Price Is Right (syndication, 1972–1980) has not been destroyed, but remains locked and mostly unseen in CBS’s archives since their original airings due to a dispute with former executive producer and host Bob Barker. This includes the entire hosting span of Dennis James, who hosted from 1972–1977. Five episodes are known to have survived outside the archives, and about 30 others from 1973–1975 circulate on home audiotape.

The first daytime version of Wheel of Fortune (NBC, 1975–1989) is destroyed through at least 1979, with a King World representative stating in August 2006 that creator Merv Griffin’s production company continued reusing tapes into 1985. GSN holds all episodes after the cutoff point, airing three (from 1976, 1982, and 1989) following Griffin’s death in 2007. Despite not being among the three, clips of a March 1978 episode were used for a c.-2004 Total Living interview with original host Chuck Woolery, using a then-current (for the interview) GSN logo. Fans have since hypothesized that GSN made or received copies from the Paley Center for Media, which holds all four episodes in question.

The joint Japanese and English masters for Tetsuwan Atom/Astro Boy were destroyed in 1975 by NBC after the syndication of the series ended and Tezuka Productions, which was undergoing bankruptcy at the time refused them for lack of funds to receive them. When The Right Stuf gained the license for the series, they were forced to find broadcast copies of the show and mate them with English sound masters that were still extant.

The Audio track of Batman: The Animated Series pilot is missing.

A number of episodes of the early-1960s sitcom My Living Doll are either lost or only survive in poor condition. The 2011 DVD release of the first half of the season includes an on-screen plea to anyone who might have prints of the missing episodes.

Select list of TV programs with missing episodes :

1. 1957 < The Adventures of Twizzle >

( Every episode of the series recorded except for the first episode “Twizzle & Footso” are believed to have been lost forever.)

2.   1973-1974 < Baffle >

( American word-guessing game show. Only 3 out of 100 episodes still exist.)

3.   1964 < Barley Charlie >

( Only 3 of the 13 episodes produced of Australia’s second-ever sitcom survive.)

4.   1958–1982 < The Bear Bryant Show >

( One of the first college football coaches’ shows; over 250 episodes were made during Bear Bryant’s tenure at the University of Alabama. Early episodes were aired live and not recorded; videotape began to be used in the 1970s, but was routinely wiped. Less than a third of the run, 77 episodes in all, survives.)

5.   1950–1953 < Beulah >

( Only 7 episodes have survived.)

6.   1948–1956 < Camel News Caravan >

( An early news program, most episodes are believed to be lost.)

7.   1949–1955 < Captain Video >

( Almost entire run destroyed after the DuMont Television Network ceased to exist.)

8.   1952-1957 < Cavalcade of Stars >

( Popular variety series; dozens of episodes were destroyed in the 1970s.)

9.   1953-1957 < Coke Time with Eddie Fisher >

( Many episodes have been lost, although some (Such as one starring Florence Henderson) have survived.)

10. 1974-1987 < Countdown >

( Numerous episodes erased by ABC.)

11. 1964–1988 < Crossroads >

( More than 80 percent of Associated TeleVision’s run was wiped or otherwise lost, although Central Television’s run is intact.

12. 1966-1971 < Dark Shadows >

( Only one episode, #1219, is missing, although a reconstruction using a home audio recording and narration has been created for home video.)

13. 1963-present < Doctor Who >

( 106 episodes of this series are missing. See Doctor Who missing episodes.)

14. 1953–1957 < Dollar a Second >

( Only two episodes have survived. A third kinescoped program exists in the J. Fred & Leslie W. MacDonald Collection of the Library of Congress.)

15. 1947–1949 < Doorway to Fame >

( One of the first “talent shows” aired on United States television, Only two episodes survive.)

16. 1954–1955 < DuMont Evening News >

( No episodes are known to survive.)

17. 1949–1950 < Family Affairs >

( Nothing remains of the first family-centred sitcom as none of the six episodes were ever recorded by the BBC.)

18. 1946 < Faraway Hill >

( No footage, stills, or scripts survive from this program, which was the first soap opera aired on American television.)

19. 1972–1976 < Gambit >

( More than 1,000 episodes appear to be lost.)

20. 1949–1956 < The Goldbergs >

( Only the last two seasons survive intact, with the CBS and NBC runs being largely lost.)

21. 1954–1957 < The Grove Family >

( Very little of the UK’s first soap opera remains today in the BBC archives.)

22. 1946–1947 < Hour Glass >

( No footage remains of television’s first variety show.)

23. 1957–1970 < In Melbourne Tonight >

( Hundreds of episodes no longer exist.)

24. 1955 < It’s Alec Templeton Time >

( One of the last DuMont series. Though Alec Templeton was a celebrity of some note, no episodes exist of the televised version of his program.)

25. 1980 < Jul og Grønne Skove >

( One of the later examples of lost TV shows, this was a Christmas calendar originally broadcast on Danish television by DR. Half of the 24 episodes were wiped some time in the mid-80’s, as were many of DR’s productions made prior to 1987, where DR made an agreement with “Statens Mediesamling” to archive all future productions.)

26. 1949–1957 < Mama >

( The vast majority of the episodes produced of this series no longer exist.)

27. 1947–1950 < Mary Kay and Johnny >

( Almost completely destroyed. The show was originally broadcast live and not recorded, but began using kinescopes in 1948. Many episodes from the latter period still existed as late as 1975, but only one complete 1949 episode (in the Paley Media Collection; see their web catalogue) and a few seconds from the show’s last few episodes still exist today.)

28. 1979–1980 < Mindreaders >

( Only around two episodes are known to survive, even though wiping had been largely phased-out by the “Big 3” United States networks at the time.)

29. 1948–1950 < Newsweek Views the News >

( A prime-time public-affairs program featuring editors of Newsweek magazine discussing current events; only two episodes survive.)

30. 1972-1977 < Number 96 (TV series) >

( Most of the black and white episodes were taped over by the Ten Network.)

31. 1953–1955 < Opera Cameos >

( One of several “cultural” programs aired by the DuMont Television Network as counter-programming, only eight episodes survive of the 50+ episodes produced.)

32. 1954–1955 < The Pinky Lee Show >

( Few episodes of this critically acclaimed TV series have survived.)

33. 1946–1947 < Pinwright’s Progress >

( Aired live and never recorded, only still photographs remain of the world’s first situation comedy.)

34. 1988–1990 < Puttnam’s Prairie Emporium >

( The master tapes were reportedly wiped by CKCK-TV in the early 1990s. A single episode (an outtakes and bloopers special), and a few minutes from one other are known to survive.)

35. 1956–1964 < Queen for a Day >

( Almost every episode of this popular TV series was destroyed.)

36. 1950–1955 < Rocky King, Inside Detective >

( Original negatives were dumped into Upper New York Bay in the 1970s.)

37. 1949 < The School House >

( Only one episode has survived from early 1949 of this DuMont show, featuring Wally Cox (flubbing his lines in a live DuMont TV set commercial) and Arnold Stang with musical performances set in a high school classroom.)

38. 1962–1963 < Sara and Hoppity >

( The master tapes are believed to have all been lost or destroyed. The pilot version of the first episode “Sara & Hoppity” was discovered in a 16mm print along with the 16mm film reels of all 39 episodes of Space Patrol in possession of Roberta Leigh in the late 1990s. One other episode is known to have been found, while only 1 minute of silent footage from another was found.)

39. 1951–1982 < Search for Tomorrow >

( Because CBS wiped it, thousands of episodes no longer exist. However the J. Fred & Leslie W. MacDonald Collection of the Library of Congress has 3 kinescopes from 1953, 1 from 1954, and 39 from May–August 1966.)

40. 1954 < Sense and Nonsense >

( Only one episode survives of this WABD series.)

41. 1955–1956 < Sixpenny Corner >

( The only soap opera ever made by Associated-Rediffusion, and the first British serial to be broadcast on a non-BBC channel is believed to have been completely destroyed.)

42. 1967–1969 < Snap Judgment >

( A game show believed to be completely wiped from the NBC archives.)

43. 1936–1949 < Starlight >

( The first ever variety show transmitted anywhere in the world, and the BBC’s first ever programme. The BBC did not have access to means of recording until late 1949, so no footage is known to exist of this show today.)

44. 1962–1969 < The Match Game >

( Only around 11 episodes survive out of the 1,752 episodes produced.)

45. 1962-1972 < The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson >

( Almost all 1962–1972 episodes were erased by NBC.)

46. 1984–present < Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends >

( The Season 2 premiere, “The Missing Coach”, was filmed, but then replaced with “Thomas, Percy & The Coal”. Britt Allcroft said that the plot would be too hard for kids to comprehend. Several production stills, though, still exist in several books.)

47. 1971-1988 < Young Talent Time >

( Almost all early episodes were erased by the Ten Network.)

48. 1962–1978 < Z-Cars >

( Half of the episodes of this popular police television series are still missing, although many episodes once believed to be lost were recovered on 16mm film.)

49. 1980–present < Various CNN broadcasts >

( Although CNN does keep extensive footage and news coverage, copies of programming with original presenter links (i.e. the newsreader) are rarely kept see section 3 part B.)

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Categories BOOKS,MUSIC , MOVIE , THEATRE, ARTISTS, and MUSICIANS.

“LOST BUT NOT FORGOTTEN” – 1. LOST FILM

26 Aug

source : wikipedia.com

A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in any studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress. Of American silent films far more have been lost than have survived, and of American sound films made from 1927 to 1950, perhaps half have been lost. The phrase “lost film” can also be used in a literal sense for instances where footage of deleted scenes, unedited and alternative versions of feature films are known to have been created but can no longer be accounted for. Sometimes a copy of a lost film is rediscovered. A film that has not been recovered in its entirety is called a partially lost film. For example, the 1922 film Sherlock Holmes was eventually discovered but some of the footage is still missing.
Most film studios routinely had a “still” photographer with a large-format camera working on the set during production, taking pictures for potential later publicity use. The high-quality photographic paper prints that resulted – some produced in quantity for display use by theaters, others in smaller numbers for distribution to newspapers and magazines – have preserved imagery from many otherwise lost films. In some cases, such as London After Midnight, the surviving coverage is so extensive that an entire lost film can be reconstructed scene by scene in the form of still photographs. Stills have been used to stand in for missing footage when making new preservation prints of partially lost films.

* Most lost films are from the silent film and early talkie era, from about 1894 to 1930. Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation estimates that over 90 percent of American films made before 1929 are lost.

Many early motion pictures are lost because the nitrate film used for nearly all 35 mm negatives and prints made before 1952 is highly flammable. When in very badly deteriorated condition and improperly stored (e.g., in a sun-baked shed), nitrate film can even spontaneously combust. Fires have destroyed entire archives of films. For example, a storage vault fire in 1937 destroyed all the original negatives of Fox Pictures’ pre-1935 films. A 1967 MGM Vault fire resulted in the loss of hundreds more silent films and early talkies. Nitrate film is chemically unstable and over time can decay into a sticky mass or a powder akin to gunpowder. This process can be very unpredictable: some nitrate film from the 1890s is still in good condition today, while some much later nitrate had to be scrapped as unsalvageable when it was barely twenty years old. Much depends on the environment in which it is stored. Ideal conditions of low temperature, low humidity and adequate ventilation can preserve nitrate film for centuries, but in practice the storage conditions were usually far from ideal. When a film on nitrate base is said to have been “preserved”, this almost always means simply that it has been copied onto safety film or, more recently, digitized; both methods result in some loss of quality.
Eastman Kodak introduced a nonflammable 35 mm film stock in spring 1909. However, the plasticizers used to make the film flexible evaporated too quickly, making the film dry and brittle, causing splices to part and perforations to tear. By 1911 the major American film studios were back to using nitrate stock. “Safety film” was relegated to sub-35 mm formats such as 16 mm and 8 mm until improvements were made in the late 1940s.

The largest cause of silent film loss was intentional destruction, as silent films were perceived as having little or no commercial value after the end of the silent era by 1930. Film preservationist Robert A. Harris has said, “Most of the early films did not survive because of wholesale junking by the studios. There was no thought of ever saving these films. They simply needed vault space and the materials were expensive to house.”
Some pre-1931 sound films made by Warner Bros. and First National have been lost because they used a sound-on-disc system with a separate soundtrack on special phonograph records. If some of a film’s soundtrack discs could not be found when 16 mm sound-on-film reduction prints of early “talkies” were being made for television use in the 1950s, that film’s chances of survival plummeted: many sound-on-disc films have survived only by way of those 16 mm prints.
Before the eras of television and later home video, films were viewed as having little future value when their theatrical runs ended. Thus, again, many were deliberately destroyed to save the space and cost of storage; many were recycled for their silver content. Many Technicolor two-color negatives from the 1920s and 1930s were thrown out when the studios refused to reclaim their films, still being held by Technicolor in its vaults. Some prints were sold either intact or broken into short clips to individuals who bought early novelty home projection machines and wanted scenes from their favorite movies to play for guests or family members.

As a consequence of this widespread lack of care, the work of many early filmmakers and performers has made its way to the present in fragmentary form. A high-profile example is the case of Theda Bara. One of the best-known actresses of the early silent era, she made 40 films, but only three and a half are now known to exist. Clara Bow was equally celebrated in her heyday, but twenty of her 57 films are completely lost and another five are incomplete. Once-popular stage actresses such as Pauline Frederick and Elsie Ferguson who made the jump to silent films are now largely forgotten with a minimal archive to represent their careers; fewer than ten movies exist from Frederick’s 1915-1928 work, and Ferguson has just two surviving films, one from 1919 and one from 1930. This is preferable to the fate of the stage actress Valeska Suratt, whose entire film career has been lost.
There are occasional exceptions. Almost all of Charlie Chaplin’s films from his entire career have survived as well as extensive amounts of unused footage dating back to 1916. The exceptions are A Woman of the Sea (which he destroyed himself as a tax writeoff) and one of his early Keystone films, Her Friend the Bandit (see Unknown Chaplin). The filmography of D.W. Griffith is nearly complete as many of his early Biograph films were deposited by the company in paper print form at the Library of Congress. Much of Griffith’s feature film work, of the 1910s and 1920s, found their way to the film collection at the Museum of Modern Art in the 1930s and were preserved under the auspices of curator Iris Barry. Mary Pickford’s filmography is very much complete: her early years were spent with Griffith and later she gained control of her own productions in the late 1910s and early 1920s. She also backtracked to as many of her Zukor-controlled early Famous Players films that were salvageable. Stars like Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks enjoyed stupendous popularity and their films were reissued over and over throughout the silent era, meaning prints of their films were likely to surface decades later. Pickford, Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Cecil B. DeMille were early champions of film preservation. Lloyd lost a good deal of his silent work in a vault fire in the early 1940s.

One remarkable case was the 1919 German film Different from the Others (Anders als die Andern), starring Conrad Veidt. A striking plea for tolerance for homosexuality, produced in collaboration with Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, it was targeted for destruction by the Nazis, with many prints of the film burned as decadent. However, a 50-minute fragment survived the censorship attempt.

** An improved 35 mm safety film was introduced in 1949. Since safety film is much more stable than nitrate film, there are comparatively few lost films after about 1950. However, color fading of certain color stocks and vinegar syndrome threaten the preservation of films made since about this time.
Most mainstream movies from the 1950s onwards survive today, but several early pornographic films and some B-Movies are lost. In most cases these obscure films go unnoticed and unknown, but some films by noted cult directors have been lost as well:

Several films by Kenneth Anger from across his career have been lost for a variety of reasons.

Ed Wood’s 1972 film, The Undergraduate, has been lost along with his 1970 film Take It Out In Trade, which exists only in fragments without sound. Wood’s 1971 film Necromania was believed lost for years until an edited version resurfaced at a yard sale in 1992, followed by a complete unedited print in 2001. A complete print of the previously lost Wood pornographic film The Young Marrieds was discovered in 2004.

Tom Graeff’s first feature film, The Noble Experiment (1955), in which director/writer Graeff plays a misunderstood genius scientist, was considered lost until found by Elle Schneider during the production of a documentary about Graeff entitled The Boy from Out of This World.

Most of Andy Milligan’s early films are considered lost.

Many short sponsored films—films made for educational, training, or religious purposes—from the 1940s through the 1970s are also lost, as they were thought of as disposable or upgradable.

Some of Jackie Chan’s and Sammo Hung’s first roles, including Big and Little Wong Tin Bar, have been considered lost.

The first three films of noted Finnish melodrama actor and director Teuvo Tulio were lost along with several other films that were of interest at least for historians of Finnish cinema, when the film depository of the company Adams Filmi burnt down in Helsinki in 1959.

Sometimes only certain aspects of films may be lost. Early color films such as Lucien Hubbard’s The Mysterious Island and John G. Adolfi’s The Show of Shows exist only partially or not at all in color because the copies that were made of the film that exist were created on black-and-white stock. (See List of early color feature films.)

Two 3-D films from 1954, Top Banana and Southwest Passage, both exist only in their flat form because only one print, made for either the left or right eye to see, exists.

*** Some films produced in 1926–1930 in sound-on-disc systems such as Vitaphone, where the sound discs are separate from the film element, are now considered lost because the sound discs were damaged or destroyed, while the picture element was not. Conversely, some Vitaphone films survive only as sound, with the film missing (such as 1930’s The Man from Blankley’s, starring John Barrymore).
Many stereophonic soundtracks from the early to mid-1950s that were either played in interlock on a 35 mm fullcoat magnetic reel or single-strip magnetic film (such as Fox’s four-track magnetic, which became the standard of mag stereophonic sound) are now lost. Films such as House of Wax, The Caddy, The War of the Worlds, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, and From Here to Eternity that were originally available with 3-track, magnetic sound are now available only with a monophonic optical soundtrack. The chemistry behind adhering magnetic particles to the tri-acetate film base eventually caused the autocatalytic breakdown of the film (vinegar syndrome). As long as studios had a monaural optical negative that could be printed, studio executives felt no need to preserve the stereophonic versions of the soundtracks.

LIST OF LOST FILMS :

For this list of lost films, a lost film is defined as one of which no part of a print is known to have survived. For films in which any portion of the footage remains (including trailers), see List of incomplete or partially lost films.
Films may go missing for a number of reasons. One major reason is the widespread use of nitrate film until the early 1950s. This type of film was extremely flammable, resulting in several fires, such as the 1967 MGM Vault fire and the 1937 Fox Pictures’ vault fire. Nitrate film was also melted down for its silver content. Films may also become lost because production companies went bankrupt, or because no one thought the movies were worth saving. Occasionally studios would remake a film and destroy the earlier version.

This is necessarily an incomplete list. Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation claims that “half of all American films made before 1950 and over 90% of films made before 1929 are lost forever.” Deutsche Kinemathek estimates that 80-90% of silent movies are gone; the film archive’s own list contains over 3500 lost films. While others dispute whether the percentage is quite that high, it is impractical to enumerate any but the more notable and those that can be sourced.

SILENT FILMS :

1890s

< Arrivée d’un train gare de Vincennes >
Director – Georges Méliès
( A French short documentary )

< L’Arroseur (aka Watering the Flowers) >
Director – Georges Méliès
( A short comedy )

< Barque sortant du port de Trouville >
Director – Georges Méliès

< Bateau-mouche sur la Seine >
Director – Georges Méliès

< Bébé et fillettes >
Director – Georges Méliès
( A short documentary )

< Les Blanchisseuses >
Director – Georges Méliès
( A short documentary )

< Bois de Boulogne (Porte de Madrid) >
Director – Georges Méliès
( A short documentary )

1896

< Bois de Boulogne (Touring Club) >
Director – Georges Méliès
( A short documentary )

< Boulevard des Italiens >
Director – Georges Méliès
( A short documentary )

< Campement de bohémiens (The Bohemian Encampment) >
Director – Georges Méliès
( A short documentary )

< Les chevaux de bois >
Director – Georges Méliès

< Le chiffonnier >
Director – Georges Méliès

< Couronnement de la rosière >
Director – Georges Méliès

< Déchargement de bateaux >
Director – Georges Méliès

< Jardinier brûlant des herbes >
Director – Georges Méliès

< Jetée et Plage de Trouville, 1st and 2nd parts >
Director – Georges Méliès

< Jour de marché à Trouville >
Director – Georges Méliès

1899

< The Jeffries–Sharkey Contest >
Directors – William Brady, Tom O’Rourke
Cast – Jim Jeffries, Tom Sharkey
( American Mutoscope and Biograph film of heavyweight championship bout, 135 minutes in length, first film shot in artificial light )

1900s

1903

< Hiawatha, the Messiah of the Ojibway >
Director – Joe Rosenthal
( Believed to be the first Canadian fiction film )

< Bobby’s Kodak >
Director – Wallace McCutcheon, Sr.
Cast – Robert Harron, Edward Dillon
( First starring role for then-child actor Robert “Bobby” Harron )

1908

< The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays >
Directors – Francis Boggs, Otis Turner
Cast – L. Frank Baum
( First adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and several of its sequels. Shown only in roadshow engagements as part of a live theater presentation, the print decomposed and was discarded )

< The Music Master >
Director – Wallace McCutcheon, Jr.
Cast – D. W. Griffith
( Most of D.W. Griffith’s early appearances as an actor in Biograph films have been preserved, minus this title )

1910

< Il Trovatore >
Directors – Louis J. Gasnier, Ugo Falena
Cast – Francesca Bertini, Gemma Farina, Alberto Vestri
( An adaptation, by Film d’Arte Italiana, of the Gutiérrez play, with a special music score adapted from Verdi )

< Back to the Soil >
Director – Thomas H. Ince
Cast – King Baggot, Mary Pickford, Owen Moore
( A drama short )

< The Better Way >
Cast – King Baggot, Mary Pickford, Owen Moore
( A drama short )

< The Fisher-Maid >
Director – Thomas H. Ince
Cast – Mary Pickford, Owen Moore
( A short )

< For Her Brother’s Sake >
Director – Thomas H. Ince
Cast – Mary Pickford, Owen Moore, Jack Pickford, Thomas H. Ince
( A one-reel short )

< For the Queen’s Honor >
Director – Thomas H. Ince
Cast – Mary Pickford, Owen Moore, King Baggot, George Loane Tucker, Isabel Rea ( A short )

< Her Darkest Hour >
Cast – Mary Pickford
( A short )

< His Dress Shirt >
Cast – Mary Pickford
( A short )

1911

< The Immortal Alamo >
Director – William F. Haddock
Cast – Francis Ford
( Earliest film of the Battle of the Alamo, shot at the Alamo itself )

< Love Heeds Not the Showers >
Director – Owen Moore
Cast – Mary Pickford, Owen Moore
( A one-reel short )

< The Rose’s Story >
Cast – Mary Pickford
( A short )

< Science >
Cast – Mary Pickford, King Baggot
( A short )

< Second Sight >
Cast – Mary Pickford
( A short )

< The Sentinel Asleep >
Cast – Mary Pickford
( A short )

< Their First Misunderstanding >
Directors – Thomas H. Ince, George Loane Tucker
Cast – Mary Pickford, Owen Moore
( A one-reel short )

< The Toss of a Coin >
Director – Thomas H. Ince
Cast – Mary Pickford, Irvin Willat, Ethel Grandin, Lottie Pickford
( A one-reel short )

< The Honor of the Family >
Cast – Lon Chaney
( Thought by some to be Chaney’s on-screen debut, though this is disputed )

1912

< Honor Thy Father >
Cast – Mary Pickford, Owen Moore
( A one-reel short )

< Saved from the Titanic >
Director – Étienne Arnaud
Cast – Dorothy Gibson
( First film about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Gibson was an actual Titanic survivor )

< Adrienne Lecouvreur >
Director – Louis Mercanton, Henri Desfontaines
Cast – Sarah Bernhardt
( A two-reeler )

< Almost an Actress >
Director – Allen Curtis
Cast – Louise Fazenda

< Back to Life >
Director – Allan Dwan
Cast – Pauline Bush, J. Warren Kerrigan, William Worthington
( A 20-minute short, with Lon Chaney )

< The Battle of Gettysburg >
Directors – Charles Giblyn, Thomas H. Ince
Cast – Willard Mack, Charles K. French
( The film was reported to have been screened in France in 1973. Mack Sennett arranged to shoot Cohen Saves the Flag alongside the production of Gettsyburg, surreptitiously capturing Ince’s battle sequences in his film at no cost to himself. This indirect footage survives )

< Bloodhounds of the North >
Director – Allen Dwan
Cast – Murdock MacQuarrie, Pauline Bush, William Lloyd
( A 20-minute short, with Lon Chaney )

< Caprice >
Director – J. Searle Dawley
Cast – Mary Pickford, Owen Moore

< The Crisis >
Doirector – W. J. Lincoln
Cast – Roy Redgrave, Godfrey Cass
( An Australian melodrama )

< An Elephant on His Hands >
Director – Al Christie
Cast – Eddie Lyons, Lee Moran, Ramona Langley
( A one-reel short )

< Evangeline >
Directors – Edward P. Sullivan, William Cavanaugh
Cast – Laura Lyman, John F. Carleton
( The first Canadian feature-length movie )

1913

< In the Bishop’s Carriage >
Directors – Edwin S. Porter, J. Searle Dawley
Cast – Mary Pickford

< Macbeth >
Director – Arthur Bourchier
Cast – Arthur Bourchier, Violet Vanbrugh
( The International Museum of Photography and Film at George Eastman House may have a print )

< Maria Marten, or the Mystery of the Red Barn >
Director – Maurice Elvey
Cast – Nessie Blackford, Maurice Elvey
( On the BFI 75 Most Wanted list )

< Red Margaret, Moonshiner >
Director – Allan Dwan
Cast – Pauline Bush, Murdock MacQuarrie
( A two-reel short )

< The Restless Spirit >
Director – Allan Dwan
Cast – J. Warren Kerrigan, Pauline Bush

< The Sea Urchin >
Director – Edwin August
Cast – Jeanie Macpherson, Lon Chaney

< Shon the Piper >
Director – Otis Turner
Cast – Robert Z. Leonard, Joseph Singleton, Lon Chaney

< The Trap >
Director – Edwin August
Cast – Murdock MacQuarrie, Pauline Bush, Cleo Madison, Lon Chaney
( A one-reel short )

< The Vampire >
Director – Robert G. Vignola
Cast – Harry Millarde, Marguerite Courtot, Alice Hollister
( Britain’s first feature-length horror film )

< The Werewolf >
Director – Henry MacRae
Cast – Clarence Burton, Marie Walcamp
( The first werewolf film, it was destroyed in a fire in 1924 )

< Absinthe >
Directors – Herbert Brenon and George Edwardes-Hall
Cast – King Baggot, Leah Baird

< The Birth of the Telephone >
Director – Allen Ramsey (?)
Cast – Thomas A. Watson as himself
( Watson was the person who received the first telephone call, from Alexander Graham Bell. The Kinetophone sound cylinder remains )

< The Crucible >
Directors – Edwin Stanton Porter, Hugh Ford
Cast – Marguerite Clark
( Clark’s second feature, based on the play by Mark Lee Luther. Re-released in 1919 )

< Damaged Goods >
Director – Thomas Ricketts
Cast – Richard Bennett
( Bennett starred in the 1913 Broadway play Damaged Goods with Wilton Lackaye )

< The Escape >
Director – D. W. Griffith
Cast – Donald Crisp
( A rare silent feature on the subject of venereal disease, begun by Griffith as his first Reliance-Majestic film, but released nearly last )

< Hearts Adrift >
Director – Edwin Stanton Porter
Cast – Mary Pickford
( A film similar in theme to Henry De Vere Stacpoole’s The Blue Lagoon )

< Her Friend the Bandit >
Director – Charlie Chaplin
Cast – Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand
( The only lost film starring Chaplin. Rumors that it had been found in Argentina proved to be untrue )

< The Higher Law>
Director – Charles Giblyn
Cast – Murdock MacQuarrie, Pauline Bush

< The Hopes of Blind Valley >
Director – Allan Dwan
Cast – Murdock MacQuarrie, Pauline Bush, George Cooper

< In the Clutches of the Gang >
Directors – George Nichols, Mack Sennett
Cast – Fatty Arbuckle

1914

< The Jungle >
Directors – George Irving, John H. Pratt
Cast – George Nash, Gail Kane
( The only film version to date of Upton Sinclair’s book of the same name )

< The Life of General Villa >
Director – Christy Cabanne
Cast – Pancho Villa
( A film about Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, starring Villa as himself )

< The Man Who Disappeared >
Director – Charles Brabin
Cast – Marc McDermott, Herbert Yost
( A ten-part serial )

< The Million Dollar Mystery >
Director – Howell Hansel
( A serial in 23 parts )

< A Night of Thrills >
Director – Joe De Grasse
Cast – Lon Chaney, Pauline Bush

< The Old Cobbler >
Director – Murdock MacQuarrie
Cast – Murdock MacQuarrie, Richard Rosson, Agnes Vernon
( This two-reel short was MacQuarrie’s directorial debut )

< The Siege and Fall of the Alamo >
Director – Ray Myers
( Four production stills and a review are held at the Library of Congress )

< Sperduti nel buio >
Director – Nino Martoglio
Cast – Giovanni Grasso, Virginia Balistrieri
( The only known copy of this movie was stolen in Rome by German soldiers during the Second World War, and then presumably lost. No other copy has been found since then )

< A Study in Scarlet >
Director – George Pearson
Cast – James Bragington
( The first feature-length adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes story, it is on the BFI 75 Most Wanted list of missing films )

< Such a Little Queen >
Directors – Edwin S. Porter, Hugh Ford
Cast – Mary Pickford
( Based on a play by Channing Pollock )

< The Trey o’ Hearts >
Directors – Wilfred Lucas, Henry MacRae
Cast – Cleo Madison, George Larkin
( A serial with 15 episodes )

< Anna Karenina >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Betty Nansen, Edward José
( The first American adaptation of the novel )

< Bella Donna >
Directors – Edwin S. Porter, Hugh Ford
Cast – Pauline Frederick

< The Black Box >
Director – Otis Turner
Cast – Herbert Rawlinson
( A 15-episode serial )

< Carmen >
Director – Raoul Walsh
Cast – Theda Bara, Einar Linden

< Chimmie Fadden >
Director – Cecil B. DeMille
Cast – Victor Moore

< Destruction >
Director – Will S. Davis
Cast – Theda Bara

< The Devil’s Daughter >
Director – Frank Powell
Cast – Theda Bara

< The Diamond from the Sky >
Directors – Jacques Jaccard, William Desmond Taylor
Cast – Lottie Pickford, Irving Cummings, William Russell
( A 30-part adventure serial )

< Esmerelda >
Director – James Kirkwood
Cast – Mary Pickford

< The Eternal City >
Directors – Edwin Stanton Porter, Hugh Ford
Cast – Pauline Frederick
( One of the first American productions filmed in Rome )

< The Galley Slave >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara, Stuart Holmes

< A Girl of Yesterday >
Director – Allan Dwan
Cast – Mary Pickford, Frances Marion, Glenn L. Martin

< The Goose Girl >
Director – Frederick A. Thomson
Cast – Marguerite Clark

< Graft >
Directors – George Lessey, Richard Stanton
Cast – Harry Carey
( A serial of 20 episodes )

< Inspiration >
Director – George Foster Platt
Cast – Audrey Munson, Thomas A. Curran

< Jim the Penman >
Director – Edwin S. Porter
Cast – John B. Mason, Harold Lockwood

< The Last Night of the Barbary Coast >
Directors – Hal Mohr, Sol Lesser
( Early example of an exploitation film, purportedly showing the last night of the Barbary Coast red-light district of San Francisco )

< Life Without Soul >
Director – Joseph W. Smiley
Cast – Percy Standing
( The second film based upon the novel Frankenstein )

1915

< Neal of the Navy >
Directors – William Bertram, W. M. Harvey
Cast – William Courtleigh, Jr.Lillian Lorraine
( A 14-part serial )

< The New Exploits of Elaine >
Director – Louis J. Gasnier, Leopold Wharton, Theodore Wharton
Cast – Pearl White, Creighton Hale
( A serial of ten episodes )

< The Pine’s Revenge >
Director – Joe De Grasse
Cast – Lon Chaney, Cleo Madison

< The Pretty Sister of Jose >
Director – Allan Dwan
Cast – Marguerite Clark, Jack Pickford, Rupert Julian
( Clark’s second film directed by Allan Dwan )

< Quits >
Director – Joseph de Grasse
Cast – Arthur Shirley, Lon Chaney
( A one-reel short )

< The Romance of Elaine >
Director – George B. Seitz
Cast – Pearl White
( A 12-episode serial )

< Rupert of Hentzau >
Director – George Loane Tucker
Cast – Henry Ainley, Jane Gail, Gerald Ames

< Sin >
Director – Herbert Brenon
Cast – Theda Bara, William E. Shay

< Sold >
Director – Edwin S. Porter, Hugh Ford
Cast – Pauline Frederick

< The Star of the Sea >
Director – Joe De Grasse
Cast – Lon Chaney, Pauline Bush

< Steady Company >
Director – Joe De Grasse
Cast – Lon Chaney, Pauline Bush
( A one-reel short )

< Temptation >
Director – Cecil B. DeMille
Cast – Geraldine Farrar, Theodore Roberts, Pedro de Cordoba

< The Threads of Fate >
Director – Joe De Grasse
Cast – Pauline Bush, William C. Dowlan, Lon Chaney

< The Two Orphans >
Director – Herbert Brenon
Cast – Theda Bara
( Later remade by D. W. Griffith as Orphans of the Storm, starring Dorothy Gish and Lillian Gish )

< Under the Crescent >
Director – Burton L. King
Cast – Ola Humphrey
( A six-part serial )

< The Valley of Lost Hope >
Director – Romaine Fielding
Cast – Romaine Fielding, Mildred Gregory, Peter Lang
( Western involving a crashing locomotive )

< The Wild Goose Chase >
Director – Cecil B. DeMille
Cast – Ina Claire

< Zaza >
Directors – Edwin S. Porter, Hugh Ford
Cast – Pauline Frederick

< The Adventures of Peg o’ the Ring >
Directors – Francis Ford, Jacques Jaccard
Cast – Grace Cunard, Francis Ford
( A 15-episode serial )

< The Apostle of Vengeance >
Director – William S. Hart
Cast – William S. Hart
( An early Western )

< Audrey >
Director – Robert G. Vignola
Cast – Pauline Frederick

< Casey of the Coast Guard >
Director – William Nigh
Cast – George O’Hara, Helen Ferguson
( A ten-part serial )

< A Daughter of the Gods >
Director – Herbert Brenon
Cast – Annette Kellerman
( A few feet were held in the Cinema Museum of London, but are now lost. A still survives of Kellerman’s nude scene, the first by a major actress )

< The Dream Girl >
Director – Cecil B. DeMille
Cast – Mae Murray

< The Eternal Sapho >
Director – Bertram Bracken
Cast – Theda Bara

< Gloria’s Romance >
Directors – Walter Edwin, Colin Campbell
Cast – Billie Burke, Henry Kolker, David Powell

< Gold and the Woman >
Director – James Vincent
Cast – Theda Bara, Alma Hanlon

< The Great Problem >
Director – Rex Ingram
Cast – Violet Mersereau, Dan Hanlon, Lionel Adams

< Her Double Life >
Director- J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara, Franklyn Hanna

< Keechaka Vadham >
Director – R. Nataraja Mudaliar
Cast – Jeevarathnam, R. Nataraja Mudaliar, Raja Mudaliar
( First silent film produced in South India )

< Lass of the Lumberlands >
Directors – Paul Hurst, J. P. McGowan
Cast – Helen Holmes, Leo D. Maloney, Thomas G. Lingham
( A 15-part serial )

1916

< Liberty >
Directors – Jacques Jaccard, Henry MacRae
Cast – Marie Walcamp, Jack Holt
( A Western serial of 20 episodes )

< Luke’s Double >
Director – Hal Roach
Cast – Harold Lloyd
( A one-reel comedy short )

< McTeague >
Director – Barry O’Neal
Cast – Holbrook Blinn, Fania Marinoff

< Milestones >
Director – Thomas Bentley
Cast – Isobel Elsom
( On the BFI 75 Most Wanted list )

< Das Phantom der Oper
Director – Ernst Matray
Cast – Nils Olaf Chrisander, Aud Egede-Nissen

< The Pioneers >
Director – Franklyn Barrett
Cast – Winter Hall
( An Australian production )

< The Realization of a Negro’s Ambition >
Director – Harry A. Gant
Cast – Bessie Baker, Lottie Boles, Clarence Brooks
( This two-reel short was Lincoln Motion Picture Company’s first production.)

< Romeo and Juliet >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara, Harry Hilliard

< The Scarlet Runner >
Directors – William P. S. Earle, Wally Van
Cast – Earle Williams, Marguerite Blake
( A serial with 12 episodes )

< Sequel to the Diamond from the Sky >
Director – Edward Sloman
Cast – William Russell, Rhea Mitchell
( A four-episode followup to the serial The Diamond from the Sky )

< The Serpent >
Director – Raoul Walsh
Cast – Theda Bara
( One of Theda Bara’s many lost films )

< She >
Directors – Will Barker, Horace Lisle Lucoque
Cast – Alice Delysia, Henry Victor, Sydney Bland

< Sherlock Holmes >
Director – Arthur Berthelet
Cast – William Gillette

< Under Two Flags >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara, Herbert Heyes

< The Valley of Fear >
Director – Alexander Butler
Cast – Harry Arthur Saintsbury, Daisy Burrell, Booth Conway

< The Vixen >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara, Herbert Heyes

< The World’s Great Snare >
Director – Joseph Kaufman
Cast – Pauline Frederick, Irving Cummings

< Alimony >
Director – Emmett J. Flynn
Cast – Lois Wilson, George Fisher
( Screen debut (uncredited) of Rudolph Valentino )

< El Apóstol >
Director – Quirino Cristiani
( Argentine production believed to be the world’s first animated feature film )

< Australia’s Peril >
Drector – Franklyn Barrett
Cast – Roland Conway, Maie Baird

< Brcko u Zagrebu (Brcko in Zagreb) >
Director – Arsen Maas
Cast – Stjepan Bojnicic
( First Croatian feature film. Only some images remain )

< Camille >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara
( A reel was rumored to be found in a Russian archive, but was actually mislabelled. The film remains lost )

< Cheyenne’s Pal >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< A Country Hero >
Drector – Roscoe Arbuckle
Cast – Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton

< The Darling of Paris >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara, Glen White

< Double-Crossed >
Director – Robert G. Vignola
Cast – Pauline Frederick

< The Eternal Mother >
Director – D. W. Griffith
Cast – Blanche Sweet, Edwin August

< Der Golem und die Tänzerin >
Director – Paul Wegener
( First sequel to a horror film )

< The Gray Ghost >
Director – Stuart Paton
Cast – Harry Carter, Priscilla Dean
( A 16-part serial )

< Heart and Soul >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara

< Her Better Self >
Director – Robert G. Vignola
Cast – Pauline Frederick

< Her Greatest Love >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara, Walter Law

< The Hidden Hand >
Director – James Vincent
Cast – Doris Kenyon, Sheldon Lewis
( A serial in 15 parts )

1917

< Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki >
Director – Oten Shimokawa
( First anime produced and released in Japan )

< Jim Bludso >
Directors – Tod Browning, Wilfred Lucas
Cast – Wilfred Lucas, Olga Grey
( Browning’s directorial debut )

< Life’s Whirlpool >
Director – Lionel Barrymore
Cast – Ethel Barrymore
( Lionel Barrymore’s last directed silent film until talkies in 1929, and the only time he directed his sister in a film )

< Magda >
Director – Emile Chautard
Cast – Clara Kimball Young, Valda Valkyrien

< A Marked Man >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< The Monk and the Woman >
Director – Franklyn Barrett
Cast – Maud Fane, Percy Marmont, Harry Plimmer
( An Australian production )

< The Mystery Ship >
Directors – Harry Harvey, Henry MacRae, Francis Ford
Cast – Ben F. Wilson, Neva Gerber
( An 18-part serial)

< National Red Cross Pageant >
Director – Christy Cabanne
Cast – An all-star cast, including Ethel Barrymore, Lionel and John Barrymore
< Red Saunders Plays Cupid >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey, Claire Du Brey
( A short )

< The Rose of Blood >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara, Genevieve Blinn, Charles Clary

< The Scrapper >
Director – John Ford
Cast – John Ford
( A Western short )

< The Silent Lie >
Director – Raoul Walsh
Cast – Miriam Cooper, Ralph Lewis, Charles Clary

< Sleeping Fires >
Director – Hugh Ford
Cast – Pauline Frederick

< The Soul Herder >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey, Claire Du Brey

< The Voice on the Wire >
Director – Stuart Paton
Cast – Ben F. Wilson, Neva Gerber
( A serial in 15 parts )

< The White Raven >
Director – George D. Baker
Cast – Ethel Barrymore, William B. Davidson

< Alraune >
Directors – Michael Curtiz, Edmund Fritz
Cast – Géza Erdélyi, Gyula Gál
( A Hungarian science-fiction horror film )

< Arizona >
Director – Albert Parker
Cast – Douglas Fairbanks

< Bees in His Bonnet >
Director – Gilbert Pratt
Cast – Harold Lloyd
( A comedy short )

< Bound in Morocco >
Director – Allan Dwan
Cast – Douglas Fairbanks

< The Craving >
Directors – John Ford, Francis Ford
Cast – Francis Ford

< Follow the Crowd >
Director – Alfred J. Goulding
Cast – Harold Lloyd

< The Forbidden Path >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara, Hugh Thompson

< The Great Love >
Director – D. W. Griffith
Cast – Lillian Gish
( This melodrama incorporated actual footage of England and France under World War I conditions, including an air raid and a battle )

< The Greatest Thing in Life >
Director – D. W. Griffith
Cast – Lillian Gish

< Headin’ South >
Director – Allan Dwan
Cast – Douglas Fairbanks

< Hit Him Again >
Director – Gilbert Pratt
Cast – Harold Lloyd
( A one-reel short )

< How Could You, Jean? >
Director – William Desmond Taylor
Cast – Mary Pickford

< Huns Within Our Gates >
Cast – Derwent Hall Caine
( Early World War I propaganda film. Also known as The Commercial Pirates and The Hearts of Men )

< The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin >
Director – Rupert Julian
Cast – Rupert Julian
( Early World War I propaganda film )

< Kicking the Germ Out of Germany >
Director – Alfred J. Goulding
Cast – Harold Lloyd

1918

< The Lamb >
Directors – Harold Lloyd, Gilbert Pratt
Cast – Harold Lloyd
( A short, one-reel comedy )

< The Lion’s Claws >
Directors – Harry Harvey, Jacques Jaccard
Cast – Marie Walcamp, Ray Hanford
( An 18-episode serial )

< On the Quiet >
Director – Chester Withey
Cast – John Barrymore

< Our Mrs. McChesney >
Director – Ralph Ince
Cast – Ethel Barrymore

< The Phantom Riders >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< The Romance of Tarzan >
Director – Scott Sidney
Cast – Elmo Lincoln
( The second Tarzan film produced )

< Salomé >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara

< The Savage Woman >
Director – Edmund Mortimer
Cast – Clara Kimball Young, Milton Sills

< Say! Young Fellow >
Director – Joseph Henabery
Cast – Douglas Fairbanks

< Sic ’em Towser >
Cast – Harold Lloyd

< The Soul of Buddha >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara, Victor Kennard

< That Devil, Bateese >
Director – William Wolbert
Cast – Lon Chaney
( Chaney’s final film in his first stint at Universal )

< Thieves’ Gold >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< Three Mounted Men >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< Under the Yoke >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara, G. Raymond Nye

< We Can’t Have Everything >
Director – Cecil B. DeMille
Cast – Kathlyn Williams, Elliott Dexter

< When a Woman Sins >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara, Josef Swickard

< Wild Women >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< A Woman in the Web >
Directors – Paul Hurst, David Smith
Cast – Nedda Hopper
( A serial composed of 15 episodes )

< A Woman’s Fool >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< Ace of the Saddle >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< The Adventures of Ruth >
Director – George Marshall
Cast – Ruth Roland, Herbert Heyes
( A 15-part serial )

< Anne of Green Gables >
Director – William Desmond Taylor
Cast – Mary Miles Minter

< The Avalanche >
Director – George Fitzmaurice
Cast – Elsie Ferguson

< Bare Fists >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< The Big Little Person >
Director – Robert Z. Leonard
Cast – Mae Murray, Rudolph Valentino

< The Black Secret >
Director – George B. Seitz
Cast – Pearl White, Walter McGrail
( A 15-part serial )

< Bonds of Love >
Ditrector – Reginald Barker
Cast – Pauline Frederick

< Count the Votes >
Director – Hal Roach
Cast – Harold Lloyd

< A Daughter of Eve >
Director – Walter West
Cast – Violet Hopson, Stewart Rome, Cameron Carr

< The Divorcee >
Director – Herbert Blaché
Cast – Ethel Barrymore, E. J. Ratcliffe, Holmes Herbert
( This was Barrymore’s last silent film )

< Elmo the Mighty >
Director – Henry MacRae
Cast – Elmo Lincoln, Grace Cunard
( An 18-part serial )

< A Fight for Love >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey, John Big Tree

< The Fighting Brothers >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Pete Morrison
( A short Western )

< The First Men in the Moon >
Directors – Bruce Gordon, J. L. V. Leigh
Cast – Hector Abbas, Lionel D’Aragon
( First film adapted directly from a work by H. G. Wells )

< The Great Radium Mystery >
Directors – Robert Broadwell, Robert F. Hill
Cast – Cleo Madison, Bob Reeves
( A serial in 18 parts )

< Halbblut >
Director – Fritz Lang
Cast – Carl de Vogt, Ressel Orla, Carl Gerard Schröder
( Lang’s directorial debut )

< The Hawk’s Trail >
Director – W. S. Van Dyke
Cast – King Baggot, Grace Darmond
( A 15-episode serial )

< He Leads, Others Follow >
Director – Vincent P. Bryan, Hal Roach
Cast – Harold Lloyd
( A one-reel comedy short )

< Here Comes the Bride >
Director – John S. Robertson
Cast – John Barrymore, Faire Binney

1919

< Der Herr der Liebe >
Director – Fritz Lang
Cast – Carl de Vogt
( This is the only film in which director Fritz Lang had an acting role )

< His Only Father >
Directors – Hal Roach, Frank Terry
Cast – Harold Lloyd
( A one-reel short )

< The Isle of Conquest >
Director – Edward Jose
Cast – Norma Talmadge

< The Knickerbocker Buckaroo >
Director – Albert Parker
Cast – Douglas Fairbanks, William A. Wellman

< The Lion Man >
Directors – Albert Russell, Jack Wells
Cast – Kathleen O’Connor, Jack Perrin
( An 18-part serial )

< The Loves of Letty >
Director – Frank Lloyd
Cast – Pauline Frederick

< Marked Men >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< The Midnight Man >
Director – James W. Horne
Cast – James J. Corbett, Kathleen O’Connor
( An 18-part serial )

< Nobody Home >
Director – Elmer Clifton
Cast – Dorothy Gish, Ralph Graves, George Fawcett, Rudolph Valentino

< One Week of Life >
Director – Hobart Henley
Cast – Pauline Frederick

< The Outcasts of Poker Flat >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< The Rajah >
Director – Hal Roach
Cast – Harold Lloyd
( A short )

< The Red Glove >
Director – J. P. McGowan
Cast – Marie Walcamp, Pat O’Malley
( A serial comprising 18 episodes. )

< Rider of the Law >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< Riders of Vengeance >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< Roped >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< Si, Senor >
Director – Alfred J. Goulding
Cast – Harold Lloyd
( A one-reel short )

< Soft Money >
Directors – Vincent P. Bryan, Hal Roach
Cast – Harold Lloyd

< The Splendid Romance >
Director – Edward José
Cast – Enrico Caruso, Ormi Hawley, Crauford Kent
( A print may be held by a private collector )

< Terror of the Range >
Director – Stuart Paton
Cast – George Larkin, Betty Compson
( A serial comprising seven episodes )

< The Test of Honor >
Director – John S. Robertson
Cast – John Barrymore, Constance Binney
( Barrymore’s first dramatic role in a film )

< A Woman There Was >
Director – J. Gordon Edwards
Cast – Theda Bara, Alan Roscoe

< Abend -Nacht – Morgen (Evening – Night – Morning) >
Director – F. W. Murnau
Cast – Gertrude Welcker, Bruno Ziener, Conrad Veidt

< The Amazing Quest of Mr. Ernest Bliss >
Director – Henry Edwards
Cast – Henry Edwards, Chrissie White
( On the BFI “75 Most Wanted” lost film list. The last copy is thought to have been destroyed in a bonfire during World War II by Edwards and White as storing it posed a fire hazard )

< Anna the Adventuress >
Director – Cecil M. Hepworth
Cast – Alma Taylor
( Taylor plays identical twins )

< Bride 13 >
Director – Richard Stanton
Cast – Marguerite Clayton, John B. O’Brien
( A 15-part serial )

< The Brute >
Director – Oscar Micheaux
Cast – Evelyn Preer

< Der Bucklige und die Tänzerin (The Hunchback and the Dancer) >
Director – F. W. Murnau
Cast – Sascha Gura, John Gottowt

< The Devil’s Pass Key >
Director – Erich von Stroheim
Cast – Leo White, Mae Busch
( Negative depiction of Americans led some to suggest Stroheim be deported from the United States )

< The Dragon’s Net >
Director – Henry MacRae
Cast – Marie Walcamp, Harland Tucker
( An adventure serial with 12 episodes )

< Fantômas >
Director – Edward Sedgwick
Cast – Edward Roseman, Edna Murphy
( A 20-chapter American serial )

< The Fatal Sign >
Director – Stuart Paton
Cast – Claire Anderson, Harry Carter
( A serial with 14 episodes )

< The Flaming Disc >
Director – Robert F. Hill
Cast – Elmo Lincoln, Louise Lorraine
( An 18-part serial )

< The Girl in Number 29 >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Frank Mayo

< Hitchin’ Posts >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Frank Mayo

< The Invisible Ray >
Director – Harry A. Pollard
Cast – Ruth Clifford, Jack Sherrill
( A 15-part serial )

< Der Januskopf (The Head of Janus) >
Director – F. W. Murnau
Cast – Conrad Veidt, Magnus Stifter, Margarete Schlegel
( An adaptation of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde )

< King of the Circus >
Director – J. P. McGowan
Cast – Eddie Polo, Corrine Porter
( An 18-part serial )

1920, 1921

< The $1,000,000 Reward >
Director – George Lessey
Cast – Coit Albertson
( A 15-episode serial )

< Il mostro di Frankenstein >
Director – Eugenio Testa
Cast – Luciano Albertini, Umberto Guarracino
( The third film based upon the novel of Frankenstein and probably the first ever Italian horror/science fiction film. Severely cut by censorship board before theatrical release )

< The Paliser Case >
Director – William Parke
Cast – Pauline Frederick

< Passion’s Playground >
Director – J. A. Barry
Cast – Katherine MacDonald, Norman Kerry, Nell Craig

< Pirate Gold >
Director – George B. Seitz
Cast – Marguerite Courtot, George B. Seitz
( A ten-part serial )

< The Prince of Avenue A >
Director – John Ford
Cast – James J. Corbett, Richard Cummings

< Remodeling Her Husband >
Director – Lillian Gish
Cast – Dorothy Gish, James Rennie
( The only movie Lillian Gish directed )

< The Revenge of Tarzan >
Directors – Harry Revier, George M. Merrick
Cast – Gene Pollar
( The third Tarzan film produced )

< The Screaming Shadow >
Directors – Ben F. Wilson, Duke Worne
Cast – Ben F. Wilson, Neva Gerber
( A serial of 15 episodes )

< The Shadow of Lightning Ridge >
Director – Wilfred Lucas
Cast – Snowy Baker, Agnes Vernon

< A Slave of Vanity >
Director – Henry Otto
Cast – Pauline Frederick

< A Son of David >
Director- Hay Plumb
Cast – Poppy Wyndham, Ronald Colman, Arthur Walcott

< Thunderbolt Jack >
Directors – Francis Ford, Murdock MacQuarrie
Cast – Jack Hoxie, Marin Sais
( A ten-part serial )

< Trailed by Three >
Director- Perry N. Vekroff
Cast – Stuart Holmes, Frankie Mann
( A 15-part serial )

< Treasure Island >
Director- Maurice Tourneur
Cast – Shirley Mason, Charles Ogle, Lon Chaney
( A lavish production of the Stevenson novel, reportedly with some color sequences )

< The Vanishing Dagger >
Directors – Edward A. Kull, John F. Magowan, Eddie Polo
Cast – Eddie Polo, Thelma Percy
( An 18-part serial )

< Vanishing Trails >
Director- Leon De La Mothe
Cast – Franklyn Farnum, Mary Anderson
( A serial with 15 episodes )

< Action >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Hoot Gibson

< The Adventures of Mr. Pickwick >
Director- Thomas Bentley
Cast – Frederick Volpe, Mary Brough, Bransby Williams
( One of the BFI 75 Most Wanted )

< Appearances >
Director- Donald Crisp
Cast – David Powell

< The Avenging Arrow >
Directors – William Bowman, W. S. Van Dyke
Cast – John Big Tree

< Bits of Life >
Director- Marshall Neilan
Cast – Lon Chaney, Noah Beery, Sr., Anna May Wong
( The first anthology film )

< The Blue Mountains Mystery >
Directors – Raymond Longford, Lottie Lyell
Cast – Marjorie Osborne, John Faulkner

< Dangerous Lies >
Director- Paul Powell
Cast – David Powell
( Alfred Hitchcock is credited as a title designer )

< Desperate Trails >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< Do or Die >
Director – J. P. McGowan
Cast – Eddie Polo, Magda Lane
( An 18-episode serial )

< Drakula halála (Dracula’s Death or The Death of Dracula) >
Director – Károly Lajthay
Cast – Paul Askonas, Lene Myl
( The first or second filmed version of the Dracula story (the existence of a 1920 Soviet film titled Drakula is in doubt), this Hungarian movie preceded Nosferatu by over a year )

< Experience >
Director- George Fitzmaurice
Cast – Richard Barthelmess, Lilyan Tashman, Marjorie Daw
( Allegory in which all the characters are named for a human Certainty or Approximation )

< Forever >
Director- George Fitzmaurice
Cast – Elsie Ferguson, Wallace Reid
( Film version of George du Maurier play Peter Ibbetson )

< The Freeze-Out >
Director- John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< The Great Reward >
Director- Francis Ford
Cast – Francis Ford, Ella Hall
( A 15-episode serial )

< The Gunsaulus Mystery >
Director- Oscar Micheaux
Cast – Evelyn Preer
( Inspired by the 1913 murder of Mary Phagan )

< Humor Risk >
Director- Richard Smith
Cast – Marx Brothers
( The first Marx Brothers film. This short two-reeler is not believed to have been shown more than once theatrically, if at all )

< Hurricane Hutch >
Director- George B. Seitz
Cast – Charles Hutchison
( A 15-episode serial )

< The Jackeroo of Coolabong >
Director – Wilfred Lucas
Cast – Snowy Baker, Kathleen Key

< Jackie >
Director- John Ford
Cast – Shirley Mason, William Scott

< Know Thy Child >
Director – Franklyn Barrett
Cast – Roland Conway, Nada Conrade, Lotus Thompson
( Thompson’s film debut came in this Australian production )

< Ladies Must Live >
Director- George Loane Tucker
Cast – Betty Compson, Mahlon Hamilton, Leatrice Joy, John Gilbert

< The Lotus Eater >
Director- Marshall Neilan
Cast – John Barrymore, Colleen Moore
( Tropical scenes filmed partly on Catalina Island, and in Florida )

< The Narrow Valley >
Director – Cecil Hepworth
Cast – Alma Taylor, George Dewhurst, James Carew
( On the BFI 75 Most Wanted list )

< The Offenders >
Director – Fenwicke L. Holmes
Cast – Margery Wilson, Percy Helton

< Rudd’s New Selection >
Director- Raymond Longford
Cast – J. P. O’Neill, Tal Ordell, Lottie Lyell

< The Secret Four >
Directors – Albert Russell, Perry N. Vekroff
Cast – Eddie Polo, Kathleen Myers
( A 15-episode serial )

< Sehnsucht (Desire) >
Director – F. W. Murnau
Cast – Conrad Veidt

< Sentimental Tommy >
Director – John S. Robertson
Cast – Gareth Hughes
( One of the biggest Paramount hits of 1921 )

< The Sky Ranger >
Director – George B. Seitz
Cast – George B. Seitz, June Caprice
( A serial with 15 episodes )

< Terror Trail >
Director – Edward A. Kull
Cast – Eileen Sedgwick, George Larkin
( An 18-part serial )

< Uncharted Seas >
Director – Wesley Ruggles
Cast – Alice Lake, Carl Gerard, Rudolph Valentino

< The Wallop >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Harry Carey

< Winners of the West >
Director – Edward Laemmle
Cast – Art Acord, Myrtle Lind
( A serial in 18 parts )

< The Beautiful and Damned >
Director – William A. Seiter
Cast – Kenneth Harlan, Marie Prevost
( F. Scott Fitzgerald’s second novel, adapted and produced by Warner Bros. Six lobby cards are extant )

< Brawn of the North >
Directors – Laurence Trimble, Jane Murfin
Cast – Irene Rich, Strongheart (a dog)

< A Blind Bargain >
Director – Wallace Worsley
Cast – Lon Chaney
( Negative destroyed by MGM in 1931. Last surviving print lost in 1967 MGM vault

fire )

< Clarence >
Director – William C. deMille
Cast – Wallace Reid, Adolphe Menjou

< In the Days of Buffalo Bill >
Director – Edward Laemmle
Cast – Art Acord, Duke R. Lee
( An 18-episode Western serial )

< Little Miss Smiles >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Shirley Mason, Gaston Glass

< Nan of the North >
Director – Duke Worne
Cast – Ann Little, Tom London
( A 15-episode serial )

< One Glorious Day >
Director – James Cruze
Cast – Will Rogers
( Possibility of a nitrate print surviving in a European film archive )

< Perils of the Yukon >
Directors – Jay Marchant, J. P. McGowan, Perry N. Vekroff
Cast – William Desmond, Laura La Plante
( A serial with 15 chapters )

1922, 1923, 1924

< The Power of Love >
Director – Henry MacRae
Cast – Elliot Sparling, Barbara Bedford, Noah Beery, Aileen Manning, Albert Prisco, John Herdman
( The first feature length 3D film is lost. The fate of the 1923 2D version, titled Forbidden Lover, is unknown )

< Quincy Adams Sawyer >
Director – Clarence G. Badger
Cast – John Bowers, Blanche Sweet, Lon Chaney, Barbara La Marr

< A Rough Passage >
Director – Franklyn Barrett
Cast – Stella Southern, Hayford Hobbs

< Silver Wings >
Directors – Edwin Carewe, John Ford
Cast – Mary Carr, Lynn Hammond

< Trifing Women >
Director – Rex Ingram
Cast – Barbara La Marr, Ramón Novarro

< The Virgin of the Seminole >
Director – Oscar Micheaux

< The Wise Kid >
Director – Tod Browning
Cast – Gladys Walton, David Butler

< With Stanley in Africa >
Directors – William James Craft, Edward A. Kull
Cast – George Walsh, Louise Lorraine
( An 18-chapter serial )

< Around the World in Eighteen Days >
Directors – B. Reeves Eason, Robert F. Hill
Cast – William Desmond, Laura La Plante
( A 12-part serial )

< Die Austreibung (The Expulsion) >
Director – F. W. Murnau
Cast – Carl Goetz

< The Courtship of Miles Standish >
Director – Frederick Sullivan
Cast – Charles Ray
( Production bankrupted actor Charles Ray and nearly ended his movie career. A full size replica of the Mayflower was built for this film )

< The Daring Years >
Director – Kenneth Webb
Cast – Mildred Harris, Charles Emmett Mack, Clara Bow

< The Eternal City >
Director – George Fitzmaurice
Cast – Lionel Barrymore, Barbara La Marr, Bert Lytell
( Partly shot in Rome )

< The Face on the Bar-Room Floor >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Henry B. Walthall, Ruth Clifford

< The Fighting Skipper >
Director – Francis Ford
Cast – Peggy O’Day, Jack Perrin
( A 15-part adventure serial )

< The Ghost City >
Director – Jay Marchant
Cast – Pete Morrison

< Hollywood >
Director – James Cruze
( Dozens of cameos of silent film stars playing themselves, including Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, Will Rogers, Mary Astor, Cecil B. DeMille and Charlie Chaplin )

< Hoodman Blind >
Director – John Ford
Cast – David Butler, Gladys Hulette

< Human Wreckage >
Director – John Griffith Wray
Cast – Dorothy Davenport, Bessie Love
( Early portrayal of drug addiction (then a taboo subject), based on actor Wallace Reid, Davenport’s husband )

< Love, Life and Laughter >
Director – George Pearson
Cast – Betty Balfour
( On the BFI 75 Most Wanted missing films )

< Lily of the Alley >
Director – Henry Edwards
Cast- Henry Edwards, Chrissie White
( On the BFI 75 Most Wanted missing films )

< The Oregon Trail >
Director – Edward Laemmle
Cast – Art Acord, Louise Lorraine
( A Western serial in 18 episodes )

< Paddy the Next Best Thing >
Director – Graham Cutts
Cast – Mae Marsh, Darby Foster, Lilian Douglas

< The Phantom Fortune >
Director – Robert F. Hill
Cast – William Desmond, Esther Ralston
( A 12-episode serial )

< Reveille >
Director – George Pearson
Cast – Betty Balfour, Stewart Rome, Ralph Forbes
( Part of the BFI 75 Most Wanted )

< Ruth of the Range >
Director – Ernest C. Warde
Cast – Ruth Roland, Bruce Gordon, Lorimer Johnston
( A serial comprising 15 episodes )

< The Santa Fe Trail >
Directors – Ashton Dearholt, Robert Dillon
Cast – Jack Perrin, Neva Gerber

< St. Elmo >
Director – Jerome Storm
Cast – John Gilbert, Barbara La Marr, Bessie Love

< The Social Buccaneer >
Director – Robert F. Hill
Cast – Jack Mulhall, Margaret Livingston
( A serial consisting of ten episodes )

< Three Jumps Ahead >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Tom Mix, Alma Bennett

< Vanity Fair >
Director – Hugo Ballin
Cast – Mabel Ballin
( Produced by Samuel Goldwyn with Prizmacolor sequence )

< La voyante (The Clairvoyant) >
Directors – Leon Abrams, Louis Mercanton
Cast – Sarah Bernhardt, Georges Melchior, Harry Baur
( This was Bernhardt’s last performance, and was made while she was mortally ill. The Cinémathèque Française is rumored to have a print )

< Where the Pavement Ends >
Director – Rex Ingram
Cast – Ramón Novarro, Alice Terry
( Filmed in Florida and Cuba )

< Woman to Woman >
Director – Graham Cutts
Cast – Betty Compson
( The assistant director was Alfred Hitchcock )

< The World’s Applause >
Director – William C. deMille
Cast – Bebe Daniels

< The Alaskan >
Director – Herbert Brenon
Cast – Thomas Meighan, Estelle Taylor
( An early role for Anna May Wong )

< Babbitt >
Director – Harry Beaumont
Cast – Willard Louis, Mary Alden, Carmel Myers
( First film adaptation of Sinclair Lewis novel )

< The City of Beautiful Nonsense >
Director – Henry Edwards
Cast – Henry Edwards, Chrissie White, James Lindsay
( The last copy is thought to have been destroyed in a bonfire during World War II by Edwards and White as storing it posed a fire hazard )

< The Dangerous Flirt >
Director – Tod Browning
Cast – Evelyn Brent, Edward Earle

< Feet of Clay >
Director – Cecil B. DeMille
Cast- Rod La Rocque, Vera Reynolds, Julia Faye, Ricardo Cortez, William Boyd ( This is one of astute preservationist DeMille’s rare lost films )

< The Fortieth Door >
Director- George B. Seitz
Cast – Allene Ray, Bruce Gordon
( A serial with ten episodes )

< Galloping Hoofs >
Director – George B. Seitz
Cast – Allene Ray, Johnnie Walker
( A ten-part Western serial )

< The Girl in the Limousine >
Directors – Larry Semon, Noel M. Smith
Cast – Oliver Hardy

< Gräfin Donelli >
Director – Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Cast – Paul Hansen, Henny Porten

< Hearts of Oak >
Director – John Ford
Cast – Hobart Bosworth, Pauline Starke

< Into the Net >
Director – George B. Seitz
Cast – Edna Murphy, Jack Mulhall
( A serial with ten episodes )

< Joe >
Director – Beaumont Smith
Cast – Arthur Tauchert, Marie Lorraine
( Lorraine’s film debut )

< Leatherstocking >
Director – George B. Seitz
Cast – Edna Murphy, Harold Miller
( A ten-part serial )

< Married Flirts >
Director – Robert Vignola
Cast – Pauline Frederick, Mae Busch, Conrad Nagel

< Merton of the Movies >
Director – James Cruze
Cast – Glenn Hunter, Viola Dana
( Named by the New York Times as one of the ten best films of 1924 )

< Miss Suwanna of Siam >
Director – Henry MacRae
Cast – Sa-ngiam Navisthira, Yom Mongkolnat, Mongkol Sumonnat
( Some promotional materials and other ephemera are held by the Thailand National Film Archive )

< My Husband’s Wives >
Director – Maurice Elvey
Cast – Shirley Mason

< Pokhozdeniya Oktyabriny (The Adventures of Oktyabrina) >
Directors – Grigori Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg
Cast – Zinaida Torkhovskaya, Yevgeni Kumeiko
( A Soviet film believed to have been lost in a 1925 fire )

< Reveille >
Director – George Pearson
Cast – Betty Balfour
( On the BFI 75 Most Wanted list )

< The Snob >
Director – Monta Bell
Cast – John Gilbert, Norma Shearer, Conrad Nagel

< So Big >
Director – Charles Brabin
Cast – Colleen Moore

< Ten Scars Make a Man >
Director – William Parke
Cast – Allene Ray, Jack Mower
( A ten-part serial )

< Tess of the d’Urbervilles >
Director – Marshall Neilan
Cast – Blanche Sweet, Conrad Nagel, Stuart Holmes

< Trouble Brewing >
Directors – James D. Davis, Larry Semon
Cast – Larry Semon, Carmelita Geraghty, Oliver Hardy

< The Way of a Man >
Director – George B. Seitz
Cast – Allene Ray, Harold Miller
( A serial composed of ten episodes )

< White Man >
Director – Louis J. Gasnier
Cast – Alice Joyce, Kenneth Harlan, Walter Long (actor)
( Clark Gable made his first film appearance in a minor role in this jungle adventure )

< Who Is the Man? >
Director – Walter Summers
Cast – John Gielgud, Isobel Elsom
( Gielgud’s screen debut. On the BFI 75 Most Wanted list )

< Wine (1924 film) >
Director – Louis J. Gasnier
Cast – Clara Bow, Robert Agnew, Walter Long (actor)
( Clara Bow’s first starring role )

< The Wolfman >
Director – Edmund Mortimer
Cast – John Gilbert, Norma Shearer

< Wolves of the North >
Director – William Duncan
Cast – William Duncan, Edith Johnson
( A ten-chapter serial )

< The World of Wonderful Reality >
Director – Henry Edwards
Cast – Henry Edwards, Chrissie White, James Lindsay, Henry Vibart
( Last copy is thought to have been destroyed in a bonfire during World War II by Edwards and White as storing it posed a fire hazard )

1925, 1926, 12927, 1928, 1929

< Ace of Spades >
Director – Henry MacRae
Cast – William Desmond, Mary McAllister
( A 15-part Western serial )

< The Adventurous Sex >
Director – Charles Giblyn
Cast – Clara Bow, Herbert Rawlinson

< Earle Williams >
Director – Corazón Aymara
Cast – Pedro Sambarino
( First Bolivian fiction feature film )

< The Dark Angel >
Director – George Fitzmaurice
Cast – Vilma Bánky, Ronald Colman
( Named by the New York Times as one of the ten best films of 1925 )

< The Fighting Heart >
Director – John Ford
Cast – George O’Brien, Billie Dove

< The Fighting Ranger >
Director – Jay Marchant
Cast – Jack Dougherty, Eileen Sedgwick
( A Western serial with 18 episodes )

< The Great Circus Mystery >
Director – Jay Marchant
Cast – Joe Bonomo, Louise Lorraine
( A 15-chapter serial )

< Heartbound >
Director – Glen Lambert
Cast – Ranger Bill Miller, Bess True
( An early 3D film )

< His Supreme Moment >
Director – George Fitzmaurice
Cast – Blanche Sweet, Ronald Colman, Anna May Wong
( Some sequences had 2 strip Technicolor )

< Idaho >
Director – Robert F. Hill
Cast – Mahlon Hamilton, Vivian Rich
( A ten-part serial )

< Kiss Me Again >
Director – Ernst Lubitsch
Cast – Marie Prevost, Monte Blue, Clara Bow

< The Lawful Cheater >
Director – Frank O’Connor
Clara Bow, David Kirby, Raymond McKee

< Madame Sans-Gêne >
Director – Léonce Perret
Cast – Gloria Swanson
( Theatrical trailer is extant )

< A Man of Iron >
Director – Whitman Bennett
Cast – Lionel Barrymore, Mildred Harris

< Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe (One Does Not Play with Love) >
Director – Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Cast – Werner Krauss

< Perils of the Wild >
Director – Francis Ford
Cast – Joe Bonomo, Margaret Quimby
( A serial consisting of 15 episodes )

< Play Ball >
Director – Spencer Gordon Bennet
Cast – Walter Miller, Allene Ray
( A ten-part serial )

< The Prophecy of the Lake >
Director – José Maria Velasco Maidana
( Second completed Bolivian fiction feature film; banned and never released )

< The Scarlet Streak >
Director – Henry MacRae
Cast – Jack Dougherty, Lola Todd
( A serial of ten episodes )

< That Royle Girl >
Director – D. W. Griffith
Cast – W. C. Fields
( Griffith used 24 airplane propellers to create a tornado sequence )

< Thank You >
Director- John Ford
Cast – Alec B. Francis, Jacqueline Logan

< A Thief in Paradise >
Director – George Fitzmaurice
Cast – Doris Kenyon, Ronald Colman, Aileen Pringle

< The Tower of Lies >
Director – Victor Seastrom
Cast – Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, Ian Keith

< We Moderns >
Director – John Francis Dillon
Cast – Colleen Moore
( A sequel to Moore’s Flaming Youth of 1923 )

< Wild West >
Director – Robert F. Hill
Cast – Jack Mulhall, Helen Ferguson
( A ten-chapter serial )

< Arirang >
Director – Na Woon-gyu
Cast – Na Woon-gyu
( A copy of this Korean film was rumored to have been in the possession of a Japanese collector who died in February 2005 )

< The Bar-C Mystery >
Director – Robert F. Hill
Cast – Dorothy Phillips, Wallace MacDonald
( A ten-part Western serial )

< The Boy Friend >
Director – Monta Bell
Cast – Marceline Day, John Harron, Gwen Lee

< The Cat’s Pajamas >
Director – William A. Wellman
Cast – Betty Bronson

< The Fighting Marine >
Director – Spencer Gordon Bennet
Cast – Gene Tunney, Marjorie Day
( A ten-episode serial )

< Fighting with Buffalo Bill >
Director – Ray Taylor
Cast – William F. Cody, George H. Plympton, William Lord Wright

< Gwiazdzista eskadra >
Director – Leonard Buczkowski
Cast – Barbara Orwid
( A story of Americans in the Polish 7th Air Escadrille fighting against the Bolsheviks during the Polish-Soviet War in 1918–1920. All copies were stolen or destroyed by the Soviet Army after 1945 )

< The House Without a Key >
Director – Spencer Gordon Bennet
Cast – Allene Ray, Walter Miller
( Detective Charlie Chan makes his first screen appearance in this ten-part serial )

< London >
Director – Herbert Wilcox
Cast – Dorothy Gish
( It is on the BFI 75 Most Wanted list of missing British feature films )

< The Mountain Eagle >
Director – Alfred Hitchcock
Cast – Nita Naldi
( The only lost Hitchcock feature film )

< The Radio Detective >
Directors – William James Craft, William A. Crinley
Cast – Jack Dougherty, Margaret Quimby
( A serial of ten episodes )

< The Road to Glory >
Director- Howard Hawks
Cast- May McAvoy
( Hawks’s first official film as a director )

< Snowed In >
Drector – Spencer Gordon Bennet
Cast – Allene Ray, Walter Miller
( A ten-episode serial )

< A Social Celebrity >
Director – Malcolm St. Clair
Cast – Adolphe Menjou, Louise Brooks
( In 1957, one print deteriorated, and later another was lost in a fire )

< Stop, Look and Listen >
Director – Larry Semon
Cast – Oliver Hardy

< Strings of Steel >
Director – Henry MacRae
Cast – William Desmond, Eileen Sedgwick

< A Trip to Chinatown >
Director – Robert P. Kerr
Cast – Margaret Livingston, Earle Foxe, J. Farrell MacDonald

< The Winking Idol >
Director – Francis Ford
Cast – William Desmond, Eileen Sedgwick
( A Western serial in ten parts )

< A Woman of the Sea >
Director – Josef von Sternberg
Cast – Edna Purviance
( Produced by Charlie Chaplin, he destroyed it in 1933 as a tax write-off. Production stills survive )

< The Arcadians >
Director – Victor Saville
Cast – Ben Blue, Jeanne De Casalis, Vesta Sylva
( Part of the BFI 75 Most Wanted missing films )

< Babe Comes Home >
Director – Ted Wilde
Cast – Babe Ruth, Anna Q. Nilsson
( Babe Ruth stars as himself in this feature-length comedy )

< Blake of Scotland Yard >
Director – Robert F. Hill
Cast – Hayden Stevenson, Grace Cunard
( A 12-episode serial )

< The Callahans and the Murphys >
Director – George W. Hill
Cast – Marie Dressler, Polly Moran

< Camille >
Director – Fred Niblo
Cast – Norma Talmadge

< The Chinese Parrot >
Director – Paul Leni
Cast – Marian Nixon, Florence Turner, Hobart Bosworth

< The City Gone Wild >
Director – James Cruze
Cast – Louise Brooks
( Early gangster film, with titles by Herman J. Mankiewicz )

< The Conjure Woman >
Director – Oscar Micheaux
Cast – Evelyn Preer

< The Couple in Name >
Cast – Ruan Lingyu

< The Devil Dancer >
Director – Fred Niblo
Cast – Gilda Gray, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong

< Evening Clothes >
Director – Luther Reed
Cast – Adolphe Menjou, Louise Brooks

< The Fire Fighters >
Director – Jacques Jaccard
Cast – Jack Dougherty, Helen Ferguson
( A ten-chapter serial )

< For the Love of Mike >
Director – Frank Capra
Cast – Claudette Colbert
( Colbert’s film debut )

< The Gateway of the Moon >
Director – John Griffith Wray
Cast – Dolores del Rio, Walter Pidgeon

< Hats Off >
Director – Hal Yates
Cast – Laurel and Hardy

< Heebee Jeebees >
Director – Anthony Mack
Cast – Our Gang: (Joe Cobb, Allen “Farina” Hoskins, Jay R. Smith, Jackie Condon, Harry Spear, Jean Darling, Bobby “Wheezer” Hutchins, Pete the Pup)

< Heroes of the Wild >
Director – Harry S. Webb
Cast – Jack Hoxie, Josephine Hill
( A ten-episode serial )

< The House Behind the Cedars >
Director – Oscar Micheaux
Cast – Shingzie Howard, Lawrence Chenault, C. D. Griffith
( A race film, it was banned in Virginia )

< Husband Hunters >
Director – John G. Adolfi
Cast – Mae Busch, Jean Arthur, Duane Thompson, Mildred Harris

< London After Midnight >
Director – Tod Browning
Cast – Lon Chaney, Sr., Marceline Day
( Chaney played both the villain, and the detective hunting him. Reconstructed in 2002 using stills and original script. Last known print destroyed in the 1967 MGM Vault fire )

< The Magic Flame >
Director – Henry King
Cast – Ronald Colman, Vilma Bánky

< The Masked Menace >
Director – Arch Heath
Cast – Larry Kent, Jean Arthur
( Filmed in Berlin, New Hampshire )

< Melting Millions >
Director – Spencer Gordon Bennet
Cast – Allene Ray, Walter Miller
( A ten-episode serial )

< Mumsie >
Director – Herbert Wilcox
Cast – Pauline Frederick, Nelson Keys, Herbert Marshall

< Now We’re in the Air >
Director – Frank R. Strayer
Cast – Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, Louise Brooks

< On Guard >
Director – Arch Heath
Cast – Cullen Landis, Muriel Kingston
( A ten-part serial )

< The Potters >
Director – Fred C. Newmeyer
Cast – W. C. Fields

< Rolled Stockings >
Director – Richard Rosson
Cast – Louise Brooks
( The film features the Paramount Junior stars, and was filmed in Berkeley, California )

< The Story of the Flag >
Director – Anson
( The first full-length British animated film, it is on the BFI 75 Most Wanted list )

< Sword of Penitence >
Director – Yasujiro Ozu
Cast – Saburo Azuma
( Ozu’s first film as director )

< Taxi! Taxi! >
Director – Melville W. Brown
Cast – Edward Everett Horton, Burr McIntosh

< Tip Toes >
Director – Herbert Wilcox
Cast – Dorothy Gish, Will Rogers
( On the BFI 75 Most Wanted list )

< The Trail of the Tiger >
Director – Henry MacRae
Cast – Jack Dougherty, Frances Teague
( A serial in ten parts )

< Two Flaming Youths >
Director – John Waters
Cast – W. C. Fields, Chester Conklin, Mary Brian

< Yale vs. Harvard >
Director – Robert F. McGowan
Cast – Our Gang: (Joe Cobb, Allen “Farina” Hoskins, Jay R. Smith, Jackie Condon, Harry Spear, Bobby “Wheezer” Hutchins, Jean Darling, Pete the Pup)
( Earliest Our Gang film to be entirely lost )

< The Awakening >
Director – Victor Fleming
Cast – Vilma Bánky, Walter Byron

< The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple >
Director – Zhang Shichuan
Cast – Die Hu, Jie Tang
( Considered to be one of the longest films ever made, released in 19 parts from 1928 to 1931 with a total running time of 27 hours. Notable for being the first martial arts film )

< The Drag Net >
Director- Josef von Sternberg
Cast – William Powell, Evelyn Brent

< Dry Martini >
Director – Harry d’Abbadie d’Arrast
Cast – Mary Astor

< Edison, Marconi & Co.>
Director – Anthony Mack
Cast – Our Gang: (Bobby “Wheezer” Hutchins, Jay R. Smith, Allen “Farina” Hoskins, Joe Cobb, Harry Spear, Jackie Condon, Pete the Pup)

< The Fleet’s In >
Director – Malcolm St. Clair
Cast – Clara Bow, James Hall
( With talking sequences and sound effects )

< 4 Devils >
Director – F. W. Murnau
Cast – Janet Gaynor
( Named by the New York Times as one of the ten best films of 1928 )

< Gentlemen Prefer Blondes >
Cast – Alice White, Ruth Taylor
( The first version of the Anita Loos story )

< Growing Pains >
Directors – Anthony Mack, Robert F. McGowan
Cast – Our Gang: (Mary Ann Jackson, Bobby “Wheezer” Hutchins, Allen “Farina” Hoskins, Joe Cobb, Jay R. Smith, Harry Spear, Jackie Condon, Jean Darling, Pete the Pup

< The Hawk’s Nest >
Director – Benjamin Christensen
Cast – Milton Sills, Doris Kenyon, Sojin

< Ladies of the Mob >
Director – William Wellman
Cast – Clara Bow, Richard Arlen

< The Last Moment >
Director – Paul Fejos
Cast – Georgia Hale, Otto Matieson
( Experimental silent film told without subtitles )

< The Legion of the Condemned >
Director – William A. Wellman
Cast – Fay Wray, Gary Cooper

< Mark of the Frog >
Director – Arch Heath
Cast – Donald Reed, Margaret Morris
( A ten-episode serial )

< Napoleon’s Barber >
Director – John Ford
cast – Otto Matieson, Natalie Golitzen

< Pirates of the Pines >
Director – J. C. Cook
Cast – George O’Hara, Rita Roma
( A serial with ten episodes )

< Scarlet Seas >
Director – John Francis Dillon
Cast – Richard Barthelmess, Betty Compson
( The Vitaphone soundtrack of music and sound effects survive )

< Street of Sin >
Director – Mauritz Stiller
Cast – Emil Jannings, Fay Wray

< Tarzan the Mighty >
Directors – Jack Nelson, Ray Taylor
Cast – Frank Merrill
( The seventh Tarzan movie produced )

< Thérèse Raquin >
Director – Jacques Feyder
Cast – Gina Manès, Hans Adalbert Schlettow, Jeanne Marie-Laurent

< The Vanishing Rider >
Director – Ray Taylor
Cast – William Desmond, Ethlyne Clair
( A serial of 12 parts )

< The Vanishing West >
Director – Richard Thorpe
Cast – Jack Perrin, Eileen Sedgwick
( A ten-episode serial )

< Vultures of the Sea >
Director – Richard Thorpe
Cast – Johnnie Walker, Shirley Mason
( A serial with ten chapters )

< What Next? >
Director – Walter Forde
Cast – Walter Forde, Pauline Johnson, Frank Stanmore

< The White Cloud Pagoda >
Cast – Ruan Lingyu

< The Yellow Cameo >
Director – Spencer Gordon Bennet
Cast – Allene Ray, Edward Hearn

< The Diamond Master >
Director – Jack Nelson
Cast – Hayden Stevenson, Louise Lorraine
( A ten-part serial )

< The Fatal Warning >
Director – Richard Thorpe
Cast – Ralph Graves, Helene Costello
( Twelve-part mystery serial released by Mascot Pictures )

< The Fire Detective >
Directors – Spencer Gordon Bennet, Thomas Storey
Cast – Gladys McConnell, Hugh Allan
( A serial with ten episodes )

< The Holy Terror >
Directors – Anthony Mack, Robert F. McGowan
Cast – Our Gang: (Mary Ann Jackson, Joe Cobb, Allen “Farina” Hoskins, Jean Darling, Bobby “Wheezer” Hutchins, Harry Spear, Pete the Pup

< The Last Post >
Director – Dinah Shurey
Cast – John Longden, Frank Vosper, Cynthia Murtagh
( On the BFI 75 Most Wanted list )

< The Pirate of Panama >
Director – Ray Taylor
Cast – Jay Wilsey, Natalie Kingston
( A serial in 12 parts )
< The Wages of Sin >
Director – Oscar Micheaux
Cast – William A. Clayton, Jr., Bessie Givens
( A race movie with an all-black cast )

SOUND FILMS :

1928, 1929

<Alias Jimmy Valentine >
Director – Jack Conway
Cast – William Haines, Lionel Barrymore
( This part talkie was MGM’s first film with synchronized dialogue sequences. It was also released as a silent film, which is similarly lost )

< The Home Towners >
Director – Bryan Foy
Cast – Doris Kenyon, Richard Bennett
( Warner Bros.’ third all talkie )

< The Melody of Love >
Director – Arch Heath
Cast – Walter Pidgeon, Mildred Harris
( All talkie. Universal’s first sound feature )

< My Man >
Director – Archie Mayo
Cast – Fanny Brice, Guinn Williams
( Part talkie released by Warner Bros )

< On Trial >
Director – Archie Mayo
Cast – Pauline Frederick, Lois Wilson, Bert Lytell
( Warner Bros.’ fourth all talking feature )

< Tenderloin >
Director – Michael Curtiz
Cast – Dolores Costello, Conrad Nagel
( Second feature film to have synchronized dialogue sequences. Part talkie )

< The Terror >
Director – Roy Del Ruth
Cast – Edward Everett Horton, Louise Fazenda
( Warner Bros.’ second all talkie. First feature with no title cards – even the credits are recited part lost )

< Women They Talk About >
Director – Lloyd Bacon
Cast – Irene Rich
( Part talkie released by Warner Bros. )

< The Argyle Case >
Director – Howard Bretherton
Cast – Thomas Meighan, H.B. Warner, Lila Lee, Gladys Brockwell
(Silent veteran Brockwell died in a traffic accident shortly after making this film)
< The Aviator >
Director – Roy Del Ruth
Cast – Edward Everett Horton, Patsy Ruth Miller

< The Awful Truth >
Director – Marshall Neilan
Cast – Ina Claire

< The Black Waters >
Director – Marshall Neilan
Cast – James Kirkwood, Mary Brian
( All talking. First talking picture produced by a British company )

< Blaze O’Glory >
Director – George Crone
Cast – Eddie Dowling, Betty Compson

< The Careless Age >
Director – John Griffith Wray
Cast – Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Loretta Young

< Careers >
Director – John Francis Dillon
Cast – Billie Dove, Antonio Moreno

< College Love >
Director – Nat Ross
Cast – George J. Lewis, Eddie Phillips

< Conquest >
Director – Roy Del Ruth
Cast – Monte Blue, H. B. Warner

< Dark Streets >
Director – Frank Lloyd
Cast – Jack Mulhall, Lila Lee
( Jack Mulhall’s character is the first attempt at dual role double exposure photography in a talking film )

< The Doctor’s Secret >
Director – William C. de Mille
Cast – Ruth Chatterton, H.B. Warner

< Evidence >
Director – John G. Adolfi
Cast – Pauline Frederick, Conway Tearle

< Fancy Baggage >
Director – John G. Adolfi
Cast – Audrey Ferris, Myrna Loy
( A part-talkie from Warner Bros. )

< Fast Life >
Director – John Francis Dillon
Cast – Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Loretta Young

< Footlights and Fools >
Director – William A. Seiter
Cast – Colleen Moore
( Part-Technicolor )

< The Forward Pass >
Director – Edward F. Cline
Cast – Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Loretta Young

< Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 >
Director – David Butler
Cast – John Breeden, Lola Lane
( Multicolor sequences )

< Frozen Justice >
Director – Allan Dwan
Cast – Lenore Ulric

< The Gamblers >
Director – Michael Curtiz
Cast – H.B. Warner, Lois Wilson

< The Ghost Talks >
Director – Lewis Seiler
Cast – Helen Twelvetrees, Charles Eaton

< The Girl from Havana >
Director – Benjamin Stoloff
Cast – Lola Lane, Paul Page

< The Girl from Woolworths >
Director – William Beaudine
Cast – Alice White, Charles Delaney

< Hard to Get >
Director – William Beaudine
Cast – Dorothy Mackaill, Louise Fazenda

< Her Private Life >
Director – Alexander Korda
Cast – Billie Dove, Walter Pidgeon

< Hearts in Exile >
Director – Michael Curtiz
Cast – Dolores Costello, Grant Withers

< Honky Tonk >
Director – Lloyd Bacon
Cast – Sophie Tucker, Lila Lee
( This was Tucker’s film debut. The complete soundtrack survives )

< Hot for Paris >
Director – Raoul Walsh
Cast – Victor McLaglen, Fifi D’Orsay

< The Hottentot >
Director – Roy Del Ruth
Cast – Edward Everett Horton, Patsy Ruth Miller

< Is Everybody Happy? >
Director – Archie Mayo
Cast – Ted Lewis, Ann Pennington

< In the Headlines >
Director – John G. Adolfi
Cast – Grant Withers, Marion Nixon

< Jealousy >
Director – Jean de Limur
Cast – Jeanne Eagels, Fredric March

< Little Johnny Jones >
Director – Mervyn LeRoy
Cast – Edward Buzzell, Alice Day

< Love, Live and Laugh >
Director – William K. Howard
Cast – George Jessel, Lila Lee

< The Love Racket >
Director – William A. Seiter
Cast – Dorothy Mackaill, Sidney Blackmer

< Lucky in Love >
Director – Kenneth S. Webb
Cast – Morton Downey, Betty Lawford
( All talking )

< Madonna of Avenue A >
Director – Michael Curtiz
Cast – Dolores Costello, Grant Withers

< Married in Hollywood >
Director – Marcel Silver
Cast – J. Harold Murray
( Multicolor sequences )

< Melody Lane >
Director – Robert F. Hill
Cast – Eddie Leonard, Josephine Dunn
( Universal’s first 100% talking musical )

< A Most Immoral Lady >
Director – John Griffith Wray
Cast – Walter Pidgeon, Leatrice Joy
( 8 sound discs survive at UCLA. Visual elements appear not to have survived )

< Nix on Dames >
Director – Donald Gallaher
Cast – Mae Clarke, Robert Ames

< The Painted Angel >
Director – Millard Webb
Cast – Billie Dove, Edmund Lowe

< Paris >
Director – Clarence G. Badger
Cast – Irene Bordoni, Jack Buchanan
( Technicolor sequences )

< Pleasure Crazed >
Director – Donald Gallaher
Cast – Marguerite Churchill, Kenneth MacKenna

< Queen of the Night Clubs >
Director – Bryan Foy
Cast – Texas Guinan, Lila Lee

< Red Hot Rhythm >
Director – Leo McCarey
Cast – Alan Hale, Kathryn Crawford
( Multicolor sequences )

< Rich People >
Director – Edward H. Griffith
Cast – Constance Bennett, Regis Toomey

< The Sacred Flame >
Director – Archie Mayo
Cast – Pauline Frederick, Conrad Nagel

< Seven Faces >
Director – Berthold Viertel
Cast – Paul Muni, Marguerite Churchill

< The Shannons of Broadway >
Director – Emmett J. Flynn
Cast – James Gleason, Lucile Gleason

< Skin Deep >
Director – Ray Enright
Cast – Monte Blue, Betty Compson

< Smiling Irish Eyes >
Director – William A. Seiter
Cast – Colleen Moore
( Part-Technicolor )

< A Song of Kentucky >
Director – Lewis Seiler
Cast – Lois Moran, Joseph Wagstaff

< Sonny Boy >
Director – Archie Mayo
Cast – Edward Everett Horton
( Part-talkie )

< South Sea Rose >
Director – Allan Dwan
Cast – Lenore Ulric, Charles Bickford

< Speakeasy >
Director – Benjamin Stoloff
Cast – Paul Page, Lola Lane

< Stark Mad >
Director – Lloyd Bacon
Cast – Louise Fazenda, H. B. Warner
( Released in both silent and all talking version. Both are lost )

< This Thing Called Love >
Cast – Constance Bennett
( Part-Technicolor film released by Pathé )

< The Time, the Place and the Girl >
Director – Howard Bretherton
Cast – Grant Withers, Betty Compson

< Tonight at Twelve >
Director – Harry A. Pollard
Cast – Madge Bellamy, Robert Ellis

< Twin Beds >
Director – Alfred Santell
Cast – Jack Mulhall, Patsy Ruth Miller

< Wedding Rings >
Director – William Beaudine
Cast – H.B. Warner, Olive Borden

< Why Leave Home? >
Director – Raymond Cannon
Cast – Sue Carol, Dixie Lee

< Words and Music >
Director – James Tinling
Cast – Lois Moran, David Percy

< Young Nowheres >
Director – Frank Lloyd
Cast – Richard Barthelmess, Marian Nixon

1930’s

n< Alf’s Button >
Director – W.P. Kellino
Cast – Tubby Edlin, Alf Goddard
( Gaumont British film with colour sequences )

< An Elastic Affair >
Director – Alfred Hitchcock
( Short film made by Hitchcock for awards ceremony at the London Palladium in January 1930 )

< The Big Fight >
Director – Walter Lang
Cast – Lola Lane, Ralph Ince

< Big Money >
Director – Russell Mack
Cast – Eddie Quillan, Robert Armstrong

< The Big Party >
Director – John G. Blystone
Cast – Sue Carol, Dixie Lee

< Bride of the Regiment >
Director – John Francis Dillon
Cast – Vivienne Segal, Walter Pidgeon
( All Technicolor musical drama, only the soundtrack survives on Vitaphone discs )

< Cameo Kirby >
Director – Irving Cummings
Cast – J. Harold Murray, Norma Terris

< The Case of Sergeant Grischa >
Director – Herbert Brenon
Cast – Chester Morris
( Academy Award nominee for Best Sound )

< The Cat Creeps >
Director – Rupert Julian
Cast – Helen Twelvetress, Raymond Hackett

< The Climax >
Director – Renaud Hoffman
Cast – Jean Hersholt and Kathryn Crawford

< College Lovers >
Director – John G. Adolfi
Cast – Marion Nixon, Jack Whiting
( Musical comedy )

< Courage >
Director – Archie Mayo
Cast – Marian Nixon, Leon Janney

< Crazy That Way >
Director – Hamilton MacFadden
Cast – Kenneth MacKenna, Joan Bennett

< The Dude Wrangler >
Director – Richard Thorpe
Cast – Lina Basquette, Tom Keene

< Dumbbells In Ermine >
Director – John G. Adolfi
Cast – Robert Armstrong, Barbara Kent

< The Eyes of the World >
Director – Henry King
Cast – John Holland, Una Merkel

< Fellers >
Directors – Austin Fay, Arthur Higgins
Cast – Arthur Tauchert, Les Coney
( An Australian comedy )

< Furies >
Director – Alan Crosland
Cast – Lois Wilson, H. B. Warner

< The Girl of the Golden West >
Director – John Francis Dillon
Cast – Ann Harding, James Rennie

< The Golden Calf >
Director – Millard Webb
Cast – Jack Mulhall, Sue Carol

< The Gorilla >
Director – Bryan Foy
Cast – Joe Frisco, Walter Pidgeon

< The Grand Parade >
Director – Fred C. Newmeyer
Cast – Helen Twelvetrees, Fred Scott

< Hide Out >
Director – Reginald Barker
Cast – James Murray, Kathryn Crawford

< Hit the Deck >
Director – Luther Reed
Cast – Jack Oakie, Polly Walker
( Part Technicolor musical comedy )

< Hold Everything >
Director – Roy Del Ruth
Cast – Winnie Lightner, Joe E. Brown
(All Technicolor musical comedy. The complete soundtrack exists on Vitaphone discs)

< In the Next Room >
Director – Edward F. Cline
Cast – Jack Mulhall, Alice Day

< Just for a Song >
Director – Gareth Gundrey
Cast – Lillian Hall-Davis, Roy Royston
( Gainsborough British film with colour sequences )

< Kismet >
Director – John Francis Dillon
Cast – Otis Skinner, Loretta Young
( A lavish costume drama in the early widescreen process known as Vitascope. The complete soundtrack exists on Vitaphone discs )

< Knowing Men >
Director – Elinor Glyn
Cast – Carl Brisson, Elissa Landi
( The second British sound feature in colour. A B.I.P. film )

< Leathernecking >
Director – Edward F. Cline
Cast – Irene Dunne, Ken Murray
( Dunne’s film debut. Part Technicolor musical comedy )

< Let’s Go Places >
Director – Frank R. Strayer
Cast – Frank Richardson, Dixie Lee

< Lilies of the Field >
Director – Alexander Korda
Cast – Corinne Griffith, Ralph Forbes

< Once a Gentlemen >
Director – James Cruze
Cast – Edward Everett Horton, Lois Wilson

< One Mad Kiss >
Director – Marcel Silver
Cast – José Mojica, Antonio Moreno

< The Other Tomorrow >
Director – Lloyd Bacon
Cast – Billie Dove, Kenneth Thomson

< The Man from Blankley’s >
Director – Alfred E. Green
Cast – John Barrymore, Loretta Young

< The Man Hunter >
Director – D. Ross Lederman
Cast – Rin-Tin-Tin, Nora Lane

< Murder Will Out >
Director – Clarence G. Badger
Cast – Jack Mulhall, Lila Lee

< No, No, Nanette >
Director – Clarence G. Badger
Cast – Bernice Claire, Alexander Gray
( Part Technicolor musical comedy. The soundtrack discs survive )

< A Romance of Seville >
Director – Norman Walker
Cast – Alexander D’Arcy, Marguerite Allan
( The first British sound feature in colour. A B.I.P. film )

< Rough Waters >
Director – John Daumery
Cast – Rin-Tin-Tin, Jobyna Ralston

< Second Choice >
Director – Howard Bretherton
Cast – Dolores Costello, Chester Morris

< She Couldn’t Say No >
Director – Lloyd Bacon
Cast – Winnie Lightner, Chester Morris
( Musical drama )

< She Got What She Wanted >
Director – James Cruze
Cast – Lee Tracy, Betty Compson

< Song of the Flame >
Director – Alan Crosland
Cast – Bernice Claire, Noah Beery
( All Technicolor musical drama, the first color film featuring wide screen, and Academy Award nominee for Best Sound. Sound discs for five of the nine reels exist )

< Song of the West >
Director – Ray Enright
Cast – John Boles, Joe E. Brown
( All Technicolor. The first all-color all-talking feature to be filmed entirely outdoors and the first color Western. The complete soundtrack survives on Vitaphone discs. In a June 2011 forum discussion, a person claimed to have fragments which others then identified as being from this film )

< Sons of the Saddle >
Director – Harry Joe Brown
Cast – Ken Maynard, Doris Hill

< Strictly Modern >
Director – William A. Seiter
Cast – Dorothy Mackaill, Sidney Blackmer

< Troopers Three >
Director – Norman Taurog
Cast – Rex Lease, Dorothy Gulliver

< Way of All Men >
Director – Frank Lloyd
Cast – Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Dorothy Revier

< What a Widow! >
Director – Allan Dwan
Cast – Gloria Swanson
( Musical drama )

< Lord Richard in the Pantry >
Director – Walter Forde
Cast – Richard Cooper, Dorothy Seacombe
( Included on the British Film Institute’s “75 Most Wanted” list of missing British feature films )

< The Last Hour >
Director – Walter Forde
Cast – Richard Cooper

< Age for Love >
Director – Frank Lloyd
Cast – Billie Dove, Lois Wilson, Charles Starrett
( Produced by the Caddo Company and an uncredited Howard Hughes )

< Alam Ara >
Director – Ardeshir Irani
Cast – Master Vithal, Zubeida, Jilloo, Sushila, Prithviraj Kapoor
( The first Indian sound film )

< Annabelle’s Affairs >
Director – Alfred L. Werker
Cast – Victor McLaglen, Jeanette MacDonald

< Children of Dreams >
Director – Alan Crosland
Cast – Paul Gregory, Margaret Schilling
( Musical drama )

< Charlie Chan Carries On >
Cast – Warner Oland, Hamilton MacFadden
( An alternate Spanish-language version, featuring a different cast, exists )

< Compromised >
Director – John G. Adolfi
Cast – Rose Hobart, Ben Lyon

< Damaged Love >
Director – Irvin Willat
Cast – June Collyer, Charles Starrett

< Fanny Foley Herself >
Cast – Edna May Oliver
( All-color film photographed in Technicolor )

< Father’s Son >
Cast – Leon Janney, Lewis Stone

< Fifty Fathoms Deep >
Director – Roy William Neill
Cast – Richard Cromwell, Mary Doran

< Honor of the Family >
Cast – Warren William, Bebe Daniels

< Men of the Sky >
Director – Alfred E. Green
Cast – Irene Delroy, Jack Whiting
( Musical drama )

< Racetrack >
Director – James Cruze
Cast – Leo Carrillo, Frank Coghlan Jr.
( Completed in 1931, but not released until 1933 )

< Shanghaied Love >
Director – George B. Seitz
Cast – Richard Cromwell, Noah Beery

< The Bargain >
Director – Robert Milton
Cast – Lewis Stone, Evalyn Knapp

< The Last Ride >
Director – Duke Worne
Cast – Dorothy Revier, Charles Morton

< White Shoulders >
Director – Melville W. Brown
Cast – Mary Astor, Jack Holt

< Women Go on Forever >
Director – James Cruze
Cast – Clara Kimball Young, Marian Nixon

< Woman Hungry >
Director – Clarence G. Badger
Cast – Lila Lee
( All-color film photographed in Technicolor )

< Peludópolis >
Director – Quirino Cristiani
( Argentine production; the world’s first animated feature film with sound, using a primitive sound-on-disc system )

< Charlie Chan’s Chance >
Director – John G. Blystone
Cast – Warner Oland
( Sixth film of the Charlie Chan series and third with Warner Oland )

< Men of Tomorrow >
Directors – Zoltan Korda, Leontine Sagan
Cast – Maurice Braddell, Joan Gardner
( Robert Donat’s film debut. The film is on the BFI 75 Most Wanted list )

< The Missing Rembrandt >
Cast – Arthur Wontner
( Second film in the Sherlock Holmes series )

< Paprika >
Cast – Franciska Gaal

< Speed Demon >
Director – D. Ross Lederman
Cast – William Collier, Jr., Joan Marsh

< Tonendes ABC >
Cast – László Moholy-Nagy
( Experimental film, scratched[clarification needed] by hand and seen by Norman McLaren in the 1930s )

< The Big Brain >
Director – George Archainbaud
Cast – Fay Wray, George E. Stone

< Il caso Haller >
Director – Alessandro Blasetti
Cast – Marta Abba, Memo Benassi
( Remake of 1930 German film The Other )

< Charlie Chan’s Greatest Case >
Cast – Warner Oland and Heather Angel

< Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka >
Director – Kenzo Masaoka
( First sound anime )

< Convention City >
Director – Archie Mayo
Cast – Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Adolphe Menjou, Mary Astor
( A pre-Code film produced by First National–Warner Bros.)

< India Speaks >
Director – Walter Futter
Cast – Richard Halliburton
( Documentary on India )

< The Monkey’s Paw >
Director – Ernest B. Schoedsack
( Adaptation of the W. W. Jacobs horror story )

< Night in the City >
Director – Fei Mu
Cast – Ruan Lingyu,Jin Yan
( The debut of Fei Mu, one of China’s greatest filmmakers )

< Stop, Sadie, Stop >
Cast -Ted Healy
( Never released, only one print made )

< Two Minutes Silence >
Director – Paulette McDonagh
Cast – Frank Bradley, Campbell Copelin, Marie Lorraine
( Australia’s first anti-war movie )

< Wasei Kingu Kongu >
Director – Torajiro Saito
Cast – Isamu Yamaguchi
( Japanese short based on King Kong, and the first Kaiju film, preceding Godzilla by 21 years )

< Charlie Chan’s Courage >
( Second version of the Charlie Chan adventure. The 1927 version still exists )

< L’impiegata di papà >
Director – Alessandro Blasetti
Cast – Memo Benassi, Elsa De Giorgi, Renato Cialente
( Remake of 1933 German film Heimkehr ins Glück )

< Jail Birds of Paradise >
Director – Al Boasberg
Cast – Moe Howard, Curly Howard

< Murder at Monte Carlo >
Cast – Errol Flynn
( Flynn’s debut film in the UK )

< The Scarab Murder Case >
Cast – Wilfrid Hyde-White
( A Philo Vance film )

< West of the Pecos >
Director – Phil Rosen
Cast – Richard Dix

< White Heat >
Director – Lois Weber
Cast – Virginia Cherrill, Mona Maris, Hardie Albright
( The last film, and only talkie, directed by Weber )

< The Magic Shoes >
Cast – Peter Finch
( Completed but never released )

< Dark World >
Director – Bernard Vorhaus
Cast – Tamara Desni, Leon Quartermaine, Googie Withers
( Released only in the UK )

< Terang Boelan >
Director – Albert Balink
Cast – Rd. Mochtar, Roekiah
( Romance film from the Dutch East Indies; the colony’s biggest commercial success )

< King Kong Appears in Edo >
Director – Soya Kumagai
Cast – Eizaburo Matsumoto
( A Japanese kaiju (giant monster) film preceded Godzilla by sixteen years. It was likely lost during World War II )

< Nad Niemnem >
Director – Wanda Jakubowska and Karol Szolowski
( The Nazi regime liked the artistic value of the movie, but could not allow the screening of a picture so firmly rooted in Polish history. It was dubbed and re-edited, changing it to pro-German propaganda. Stefan Dekierowski informed the Polish underground, and the remaining three copies (out of 5 total) were hidden in winter 1939; the movie is believed to be lost )

< Secreto de confesión >
( It was lost during the bombing of Manila during World War II )

1940

n< This Man Is Dangerous >
Director – Lawrence Huntington
Cast – James Mason
( Although it is known to have been shown on British television as recently as 1987, the film is believed lost and is included on the BFI’s “75 Most Wanted” list of missing British feature films )

< Brother Martin: Servant of Jesus >
Director – Spencer Williams

< Deruhi e, Deruhi e >
Director – Yasujiro Ozu
Cast – Chandra Bose
( Wartime propaganda film directed by Ozu, and destroyed by him at war’s end )

< Escape Episode >
Director – Kenneth Anger
( The director destroyed the film together with a few other early works he made )

< Red Sky at Morning >
Director – Hartney Arthur
Cast – Peter Finch, John Alden

< Flight from Folly >
Director – Herbert Mason
Cast – Patricia Kirkwood, Hugh Sinclair
( Screen debut of stage star Kirkwood. It is on the BFI 75 Most Wanted list )

< Little Iodine >
Director – Reginald Le Borg
Cast – Hobart Cavanaugh, Irene Ryan
(Release delayed by a polio outbreak; Little Iodine cartoonist Jimmy Hatlo was a writer)

< The Betrayal >
Director – Oscar Micheaux
( The director’s final production )

1950

< The Miracle of St. Anne >
Director – Orson Welles
Cast – Suzanne Cloutier, Maurice Bessy, Boris Vian
( Short film made as prologue to the Paris stage production of Welles’ play The Unthinking Lobster )

1960

< Cranks at Work >
Director – Ken Russell
( English. Russell’s short 35mm film about the choreographer John Cranko )

< Bulgasari >
Director – Kim Myeong-jae
( South Korean Kaiju film. Later remade in 1985 as Pulgasari )

< Andy Warhol Films Jack Smith Filming Normal Love >
Director – Andy Warhol
Cast – Jack Smith
( This home movie, which may have been Warhol’s first film, was seized by New York City Police in March 1964, and has since disappeared )

< Farewell Performance >
Director – Robert Tronson
Cast – David Kernan, Frederick Jaeger, Delphi Lawrence
( On the BFI 75 Most Wanted list )

< Gogola >
Director – Balwant Dave
Cast – Tabassum
( Bollywood clone of Godzilla, unknown if any prints still survive )

< Batman Fights Dracula >
Director – Leody M. Diaz
Cast – Jing Abalos, Dante Rivero
( An unofficial Filipino Batman parody made without permission of DC Comics, owner of the character’s copyright )

< Israel: A Right to Live >
Director – John Schlesinger
( Director Schlesinger shot this film for producer Harry Saltzman. Alan Rosenthal claims that “hours of film had been shot and edited, but nobody liked the result. Israel was too triumphant, too out of keeping with the changed mood. It had a few showings and then passed into oblivion.” On the other hand, William J. Mann claims that Schlesinger never finished the documentary, “due to ‘creative differences’ with the BBC.” Cinematographer Anthony B. Richmond claimed in 2011 that he’s never been able to find a copy of the documentary )

< Las Noches del Hombre Lobo >
Director – René Govar
Cast – Paul Naschy
( The second in a series of films featuring the character Count Waldemar Daninsky. Never publicly screened )

< The Other People >
Director – David Hart
Cast – Peter McEnery, Donald Pleasence
( Never released )

< The Promise >
Director – Michael Hayes
Cast – Ian McKellen, John Castle
( First known film adaptation of a work by Soviet playwright Aleksei Arbuzov, and an early film role for McKellen. Appears on the BFI 75 Most Wanted list )

1970

< Nobody Ordered Love >
Director – Robert Hartford-Davis
Cast – Ingrid Pitt, Tony Selby
( All known prints believed destroyed upon the director’s death, at his request. Currently listed on the BFI 75 Most Wanted list )

< Together for Days >
Director – Michael Schultz
Cast – Clifton Davis, Lois Chiles, Samuel L. Jackson
( Jackson’s film debut )

< Him >
Director – Ed D. Louie
( Only adverts and reviews are known to survive )

< Clockwork >
Director – Sam Raimi
Cast – Scott Spiegel, Cheryl Guttridge
( Raimi’s film debut )

1990

< Puppet >
Director – Felix R. Limardo
Cast – Fred Weller, Rebecca Gayheart, Artie Lange
( Lange states in his book that he has never seen the film because it has never surfaced )

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Categories BOOKS,MUSIC , MOVIE , THEATRE, ARTISTS, and MUSICIANS.

SUPERCONTINENTS and SUPEROCEANS

14 Aug

source : wikipedia.com

Supercontinent

In geology, a supercontinent is the assembly of most or all of the Earth’s continental blocks or cratons to form a single large landmass. However, the definition of a supercontinent can be ambiguous. Many tectonicists such as Hoffman (1999) use the term “supercontinent” to mean “a clustering of nearly all continents”. This definition leaves room for interpretation when labeling a continental body and is easier to apply to Precambrian times. Using the first definition provided here, Gondwana (Gondwanaland) is not considered a supercontinent, because the landmasses of Baltica, Laurentia and Siberia also existed at the same time but physically separate from each other.

1. Supercontinent name : UR (VAALBARA)
Age (Ga: billions of years ago, Ma: millions of years ago) : ~3.6-2.8 Ga

2. Supercontinent name :   KENORLAND
Age (Ga: billions of years ago, Ma: millions of years ago) :   ~2.7-2.1 Ga

3. Supercontinent name :   PROTOPANGEA – PALEOPANGEA
Age (Ga: billions of years ago, Ma: millions of years ago) :   ~2.7-0.6 Ga

4. Supercontinent name :   COLUMBIA (NUNA)
Age (Ga: billions of years ago, Ma: millions of years ago) :   ~1.8-1.5 Ga

5. Supercontinent name :   RODINIA
Age (Ga: billions of years ago, Ma: millions of years ago) :   ~1.25-0.75 Ga

6. Supercontinent name :   PANNOTIA
Age (Ga: billions of years ago, Ma: millions of years ago) :   ~600 Ma

7. Supercontinent name : PANGAEA
Age (Ga: billions of years ago, Ma: millions of years ago) : ~300 Ma.

The landmass of Pangaea is the collective name describing all of these continental masses when they were in a close proximity to one another. This would classify Pangaea as a supercontinent (Figure 1). According to the definition by Rogers and Santosh (2004), a supercontinent does not exist today (Figure 2). Supercontinents have assembled and dispersed multiple times in the geologic past (Table 1). The positions of continents have been accurately determined back to the early Jurassic. However, beyond 200 Ma, continental positions are much less certain.

* There are two contrasting models for supercontinent evolution through geological time. The first model theorizes that at least two separate supercontinents existed comprising Vaalbara (from ~3600 to 2500 Ma) and Kenorland (from ~2700 to 2450 Ma). The Neoarchean supercontinent consisted of Superia and Sclavia. These parts of Neoarchean age broke off at ~2300 and 2090 Ma and portions of them later collided to form Nuna (Northern Europe North America) (~1750 Ma). Nuna continued to develop during the Mesoproterozoic, primarily by lateral accretion of juvenile arcs, and in ~1000 Ma Nuna collided with other land masses, forming Rodinia. Between ~800 and 700 Ma Rodinia broke apart. However, before completely breaking up, some fragments of Rodinia had already come together to form Gondwana (also known as Gondwanaland) by ~530 Ma. Pangaea formed by ~300 Ma through the collision of Gondwana, Laurentia, Baltica, and Siberia.

The second model (Protopangea-Paleopangea) is based on both palaeomagnetic and geological evidence and proposes that the continental crust comprised a single supercontinent from ~2.7 Ga until break-up during the Edicaran Period after ~0.6 Ga. The reconstruction is derived from the observation that palaeomagnetic poles converge to quasi-static positions for long intervals between ~2.7-2.2, 1.5-1.25 and 0.75-0.6 Ga with only small peripheral modifications to the reconstruction. During the intervening periods, the poles conform to a unified apparent polar wander path. Because this model shows that exceptional demands on the paleomagnetic data are satisfied by prolonged quasi-integrity, it must be regarded as superseding the first model proposing multiple diverse continents, although the first phase (Protopangea) essentially incorporates Vaalbara and Kenorland of the first model. The explanation for the prolonged duration of the Protopangea-Paleopangea supercontinent appears to be that Lid Tectonics (comparable to the tectonics operating on Mars and Venus) prevailed during Precambrian times. Plate Tectonics as seen on the contemporary Earth became dominant only during the latter part of geological times. The Phanerozoic supercontinent of Pangaea began to break up 180 Ma and is still doing so today. Because Pangaea is the most recent of Earth’s supercontinents, it is the most well known and understood. Contributing to Pangaea’s popularity in the classroom is the fact that its reconstruction is almost as simple as fitting the present continents bordering the Atlantic-type oceans like puzzle pieces.

** A supercontinent cycle is the break-up of one supercontinent and the development of another, which takes place on a global scale. Supercontinent cycles are not the same as the Wilson cycle, which is the opening and closing of an individual oceanic basin. The Wilson cycle rarely synchronizes with the timing of a supercontinent cycle. However supercontinent cycles and Wilson cycles were both involved in the creation of Pangaea and Rodinia.
Secular trends such as carbonatites, granulites, eclogites, and greenstone belt deformation events are all possible indicators of Precambrian supercontinent cyclicity, although the Protopangea-Paleopangea solution implies that Phanerozoic style of supercontinent cycles did not operate during these times. Also there are instances where these secular trends have a weak, uneven or lack of imprint on the supercontinent cycle; secular methods for supercontinent reconstruction will produce results that have only one explanation and each explanation for a trend must fit in with the rest.

* The causes of supercontinent assembly and dispersal are thought to be driven by processes in the mantle. Approximately 660 km into the mantle, a discontinuity occurs, affecting the surface crust through processes like plumes and “superplumes”. When a slab of crust that is subducted is denser than the surrounding mantle, it sinks to the discontinuity. Once the slabs build up, they will sink through to the lower mantle in what is known as a “slab avalanche” (Figure 3). This displacement at the discontinuity will cause the lower mantle to compensate and rise elsewhere. The rising mantle can form a plume or superplume (Figure 4).
Besides having compositional effects on the upper mantle by replenishing the LILE (large ion lithophile elements), volcanism affects the plate movement. The plates will be moved towards a geoidal low perhaps where the slab avalanche occurred and pushed away from the geoidal high that can be caused by the plumes or superplumes. This causes the continents to push together to form supercontinents and was evidently the process that operated to cause the early continental crust to aggregate into Protopangea. Dispersal of supercontinents is caused by the accumulation of heat underneath the crust due to the rising of very large convection cells or plumes, and a massive heat release resulted in the final break-up of Paleopangea. Accretion occurs over geoidal lows that can be caused by avalanche slabs or the downgoing limbs of convection cells. Evidence of the accretion and dispersion of supercontinents is seen in the geological rock record.

The influence of known volcanic eruptions does not compare to that of flood basalts. The timing of flood basalts has corresponded with large-scale continental break-up. However, due to a lack of data on the time required to produce flood basalts, the climatic impact is difficult to quantify. The timing of a single lava flow is also undetermined. These are important factors on how flood basalts influenced paleoclimate.

** Global paleogeography and plate interactions as far back as Pangaea are relatively well understood today. However, the evidence becomes more sparse further back in geologic history. Marine magnetic anomalies, passive margin match-ups, geologic interpretation of orogenic belts, paleomagnetism, paleobiogeography of fossils, and distribution of climatically sensitive strata are all methods to obtain evidence for continent locality and indicators of environment throughout time.
Phanerozoic (540 Ma to present) and Precambrian (4.6 Ga to 540 Ma) had primarily passive margins and detrital zircons (and orogenic granites), while the tenure of Pangaea contained few. Matching edges of continents are where passive margins form. The edges of these continents may rift. At this point, seafloor spreading becomes the driving force. Passive margins are therefore born during the break-up of supercontinents and die during supercontinent assembly. Pangaea’s supercontinent cycle is a good example for the efficiency of using the presence, or lack of, these entities to record the development, tenure, and break-up of supercontinents. There is a sharp decrease in passive margins between 500 and 350 Ma during the timing of Pangaea’s assembly. The tenure of Pangaea is marked by a low number of passive margins during 300 to 275 Ma, and its break-up is indicated accurately by an increase in passive margins.

Orogenic belts can form during the assembly of continents and supercontinents. The orogenic belts present on continental blocks are classified into three different categories and have implications of interpreting geologic bodies. Intercratonic orogenic belts are characteristic of ocean basin closure. Clear indicators of intercratonic activity contain ophiolites and other oceanic materials that are present in the suture zone. Intracratonic orogenic belts occur as thrust belts and do not contain any oceanic material. However, the absence of ophiolites is not strong evidence for intracratonic belts, because the oceanic material can be squeezed out and eroded away in an intercratonic environment. The third kind of orogenic belt is a confined orogenic belt which is the closure of small basins. The assembly of a supercontinent would have to show intercratonic orogenic belts. However, interpretation of orogenic belts can be difficult.
The collision of Gondwana and Laurasia occurred in the late Phanerozoic. By this collision, the Variscan mountain range was created, along the equator. This 6000-km-long mountain range is usually referred to in two parts: the Hercynian mountain range of the late Carboniferous makes up the eastern part, and the western part is called the Appalachians, uplifted in the early Permian. (The existence of a flat elevated plateau like the Tibetan Plateau is under much debate.) The locality of the Variscan range made it influential to both the northern and southern hemispheres. The elevation of the Appalachians would greatly influence global atmospheric circulation.

*** Continents, in particular large or supercontinents, will affect the climate of the planet drastically. In general the interaction of supercontinents and climate is similar to the interaction between present day continents and climate, just on a different scale. Supercontinents have a larger effect on climate than do continents. The configuration and placement of the continents has a larger influence on climate. Continents modify global wind patterns, control ocean current paths and have a higher albedo than the oceans. Since continents are higher in the elevation, the temperature decreases with altitude. The wind is redirected by mountains. The albedo difference causes a shift in climate by onshore winds. “Continentality” occurs because the center of large continents are generally higher in elevations and are therefore cooler and dryer. This is seen today with Eurasia, and evidence is present in the rock record that this is true for the middle of Pangaea.

Glacial :

The term glacio-epoch refers to a long episode of glaciation on Earth over millions of years. Glaciers have a major implications on the climate particularly through sea level change. Changes in the position and elevation of the continents, the paleolatitude and ocean circulation affect the glacio-epochs. There is an association between the rifting and break up of continents and supercontinents and glacio-epochs. According to the first model for Precambrian supercontinents described above the break up of Kenorland and Rodinia were associated with the Paleoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic glacio-epochs, respectively. In contrast, the second solution described above shows that these glaciations correlated with periods of low continental velocity and it is concluded that a fall in tectonic and corresponding volcanic activity was respondsible for these intervals of global frigidity. During the accumulation of supercontinents with times of regional uplift, glacio-epochs seem to be rare with little supporting evidence. However, the lack of evidence does not allow for the conclusion that glacio-epochs are not associated with collisional assembly of supercontinents. This could just represent a preservation bias.
During the late Ordovician (~465 Ma), the particular configuration of Gondwana may have allowed for glaciation and high CO2 levels to occur at the same time.
However, some geologists disagree and think that there was a temperature increase at this time. This increase may have been strongly influenced by the movement of Gondwana across the South Pole, which may have prevented lengthy snow accumulation. Although late Ordovician temperatures at the South Pole may have reached freezing, there were no ice sheets during the early Silurian (~440 Ma) through the late Mississippian (~330 Ma). Agreement can be met with the theory that continental snow can occur when the edge of a continent is near the pole. Therefore Gondwana, while located tangent to the South Pole, may have experienced glaciation along its coast.

Precipitation :

Though precipitation rates during monsoonal circulations are difficult to predict, there is evidence for a large orographic barrier within the interior of Pangaea during the late Paleozoic (~250 Ma). The possibility of the SW-NE trending Appalachian-Hercynian Mountains makes the region’s monsoonal circulations potentially relatable to present day monsoonal circulations surrounding the Tibetan Plateau, which is known to positively influence the magnitude of monsoonal periods within Eurasia. It is therefore somewhat expected that lower topography in other regions of the supercontinent during the Jurassic would negatively influence precipitation variations. The break up of supercontinents may have affected local precipitation. When any supercontinent breaks up, there will be an increase in precipitation runoff over the surface of the continental land masses, increasing silicate weathering and the consumption of CO2.

Temperature :

Even though during the Archaean solar radiation was reduced by 30 percent and the Cambrian-Precambrian boundary by six percent, the Earth has only experienced three ice ages throughout the Precambrian. It must be noted that erroneous conclusions are more likely to be made when models are limited to one climatic configuration (which is usually present day).
Cold winters in continental interiors are due to rate ratios of radiative cooling (greater) and heat transport from continental rims. To raise winter temperatures within continental interiors, the rate of heat transport must increase to become greater than the rate of radiative cooling. Through climate models, alterations in atmospheric CO2 content and ocean heat transport are not comparatively effective.

CO2 models suggest that values were low in the late Cenozoic and Carboniferous-Permian glaciations. While early Paleozoic values are much larger (more than ten percent higher than that of today). This may be due to high seafloor spreading rates after the break up of Precambrian supercontinents and the lack of land plants as a carbon sink.
During the late Permian, it is expected that seasonal Pangaean temperatures varied drastically. Subtropic summer temperatures were warmer than that of today by as much as 6-10 degrees and mid-latitudes in the winter were less than -30 degrees Celsius. These seasonal changes within the supercontinent were influenced by the large size of Pangaea. And, just like today, coastal regions experienced much less variation.
During the Jurassic, summer temperatures did not raise above zero degrees Celsius along the northern rim of Laurasia, which was the northernmost part of Pangaea (the southernmost portion of Pangaea was Gondwana). Ice-rafted dropstones sourced from Russia are indicators of this northern boundary. The Jurassic is thought to have been approximately 10 degrees Celsius warmer along 90 degrees East paleolongitude compared to the present temperature of today’s central Eurasia.

Milankovitch cycles :

Many studies of the Milankovitch fluctuations during supercontinent time periods have focused on the Mid-Cretaceous. Present amplitudes of Milankovitch cycles over present day Eurasia may be mirrored in both the southern and northern hemispheres of the supercontinent Pangaea. Climate modeling shows that summer fluctuations varied 14-16 degrees Celsius on Pangaea, which is similar or slightly higher than summer temperatures of Eurasia during the Pleistocene. Mid- to high-latitudes during the Triassic-Jurassic is where the largest amplitude Milankovitch cycles are expected to have been.

*** Granites and detrital zircons have notably similar and episodic appearances in the rock record. Their fluctuations somewhat mirror Precambrian supercontinent cycles. The U-Pb zircon dates from orogenic granites are of the most reliable aging determinants. There are some issues with relying on granite sourced zircons, such as a lack of evenly globally sourced data and the loss of granite zircons by sedimentary coverage or plutonic consumption. Where granite zircons fall short, detrital zircons from sandstones appear and make up for the gaps. These detrital zircons are taken from the sands of major modern rivers and their drainage basins. Figure 5 depicts the U/Pb ages of over 5000 detrital zircons from 40 of Earth’s major rivers. Oceanic magnetic anomalies and paleomagnetic data are the primary resources used for reconstructing continent and supercontinent locations back to roughly 150 Ma.

* Plate tectonics and the chemical composition of the atmosphere (specifically greenhouse gases) are the two most prevailing factors present within the geologic time scale. Continental drift influences on both cold and warm climatic episodes. Atmospheric circulation and climate are strongly influenced by the location and formation of continents and megacontinents. Therefore, continental drift influences mean global temperature.
Oxygen levels of the Archaean Eon were negligible and today they are roughly 21 percent. It is thought that the Earth’s oxygen content has risen in stages. Six or seven steps that are timed very closely to the development of Earth’s supercontinents.

The process of Earth’s increase in atmospheric oxygen content is theorized to have started with continent-continent collision of huge land masses forming supercontinents, and therefore possibly supercontinent mountain ranges (supermountains). These supermountains would have eroded, and the mass amounts of nutrients, including iron and phosphorus, would have washed into oceans, just as we see happening today. The oceans would then be rich in nutrients essential to photosynthetic organisms, which would then be able to respire mass amounts of oxygen. (1: continents collide, 2: ‘supermountains’ form, 3: erosion of ‘supermountains,’ 4: large quantities of minerals and nutrients washed out to open ocean, 5: explosion of marine algae life (partly sourced from noted nutrients), and 6: mass amounts of oxygen produced during photosynthesis. There is an apparent direct relationship between orogeny and the atmospheric oxygen content). There is also evidence for increased sedimentation concurrent with the timing of these mass oxygenation events, meaning that the organic carbon and pyrite at these times were more likely to be buried beneath sediment and therefore unable to react with the free oxygen. This sustained the atmospheric oxygen increases.

2.65 Ga there was an increase in Mo isotope fractionation during this time. It was temporary, but supports the increase in atmospheric oxygen because molybdenum isotopes require free oxygen to fractionate. Between 2.45 and 2.32 Ga, the second period of oxygenation occurred, it has been called the ‘great oxygenation event.’ There are many pieces of evidence that support the existence of this event, including red bed appearance 2.3 Ga (meaning that Fe3+ was being produced and became an important component in soils). The third oxygenation stage approximately 1.8 Ga is indicated by the disappearance of iron formations. Neodymium isotopic studies suggest that iron formations are usually from continental sources, meaning that dissolved Fe and Fe2+ had to be transported during continental erosion. A rise in atmospheric oxygen prevents Fe transport, so the lack of iron formations may have been due to an increase in oxygen. The fourth oxygenation event, roughly 0.6 Ga, is based on modeled rates of S isotopes from marine carbonate-associated sulfates. An increase (near doubled concentration) of sulfur isotopes, which is suggested by these models, would require an increase in oxygen content of the deep oceans. Between 650 and 550 Ma there were three increases in ocean oxygen levels, this period is the fifth oxygenation stage. One of the reasons indicating this period to be an oxygenation event is the increase in redox-sensitive Mo in black shales. The sixth event occurred between 360 and 260 Ma and was identified by models suggesting shifts in the balance of 34S in sulfates and 13C in carbonates, which were strongly influenced by an increase in atmospheric oxygen.

Superocean

A superocean is an ocean which surrounds a supercontinent. It is less commonly defined as any ocean larger than the current Pacific Ocean. Named global superoceans include Mirovia, which surrounded the supercontinent Rodinia, and Panthalassa, which surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea. Pannotia and Columbia, along with landmasses before Columbia (such as Ur), were also surrounded by superoceans.
As surface water moves unobstructed east to west in superoceans, it tends to warm from the exposure to sunlight so that the western edge of the ocean is warmer than the eastern. Additionally, seasonal changes in temperature, which would have been significantly more rapid inland, probably caused powerful monsoons. In general, however, the mechanics of superoceans are not well understood.

List of superoceans :

Mirovia (Rodinia)
Pan-African Ocean (Pannotia)
Panthalassa (Pangaea)
Mega Pacific Ocean (Pangaea Ultima)
Super Atlantic Ocean (Amasia)
Super Indian Ocean (Amasia).

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Categories HISTORY,GEOGRAPHY

“JAWS ATTACKS” – TWO NOTABLE CASES

13 Aug

source : wikipedia.com

1. JERSEY SHORE SHARK ATTACKS OF 1916

The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were a series of shark attacks along the coast of New Jersey between July 1 and July 12, 1916, in which four people were killed and one injured. Since 1916, scholars have debated which shark species was responsible and the number of animals involved, with the great white shark and the bull shark most frequently being blamed. The attacks occurred during a deadly summer heat wave and polio epidemic in the Northeastern United States that drove thousands of people to the seaside resorts of the Jersey Shore. Shark attacks on the Atlantic Coast of the United States outside the semitropical states of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas were rare, but scholars believe that the increased presence of sharks and humans in the water led to the attacks in 1916.
Local and national reaction to the attacks involved a wave of panic that led to shark hunts aimed at eradicating the population of “man-eating” sharks and protecting the economies of New Jersey’s seaside communities. Resort towns enclosed their public beaches with steel nets to protect swimmers. Scientific knowledge about sharks before 1916 was based on conjecture and speculation. The attacks forced ichthyologists to reassess common beliefs about the abilities of sharks and the nature of shark attacks.

The Jersey Shore attacks immediately entered into American popular culture, where sharks became caricatures in editorial cartoons representing danger. The attacks inspired Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws (1974), an account of a great white shark that torments the fictional coastal community of Amity. Jaws was made into an influential film in 1975 by Steven Spielberg. The attacks became the subject of documentaries for the History Channel, National Geographic Channel, and Discovery Channel, including Blood in the Water (2009).

* Between July 1 and July 12, 1916, five people were attacked along the coast of New Jersey by sharks; only one of the victims survived. The first attack occurred on Saturday, July 1 at Beach Haven, a resort town established on Long Beach Island off the southern coast of New Jersey. Charles Epting Vansant, 25, of Philadelphia was on vacation at the Engleside Hotel with his family. Before dinner, Vansant decided to take a quick swim in the Atlantic with a Chesapeake Bay Retriever that was playing on the beach. Shortly after entering the water, Vansant began shouting. Bathers believed he was calling to the dog, but a shark was actually biting Vansant’s legs. He was rescued by lifeguard Alexander Ott, and bystander Sheridan Taylor who claimed the shark followed him to shore as they pulled the bleeding Vansant from the water. Vansant’s left thigh was stripped of its flesh; he bled to death on the manager’s desk of the Engleside Hotel at 6:45 p.m.
Despite the Vansant incident, beaches along the Jersey Shore remained open. Sightings of large sharks swarming off the coast of New Jersey were reported by sea captains entering the ports of Newark and New York City but were dismissed. The second attack occurred 45 miles (72 km) north of Beach Haven at the resort town of Spring Lake, New Jersey. The victim was Charles Bruder, 27, a Swiss bellhop at the Essex & Sussex Hotel. Bruder was killed on Thursday, July 6, 1916, while swimming 130 yards (120 m) from shore. A shark bit him in the abdomen and severed his legs; Bruder’s blood turned the water red. After hearing screams, a woman notified a lifeguard that a canoe with a red hull had capsized and was floating just at the water’s surface. Lifeguards Chris Anderson and George White rowed to Bruder in a lifeboat and realized he had been bitten by a shark. They pulled him from the water, but he bled to death on the way to shore. According to The New York Times, “women [were] panic-stricken [and fainted] as [Bruder’s] mutilated body … [was] brought ashore.” Guests and workers at the Essex & Sussex and neighboring hotels raised money for Bruder’s mother in Switzerland.

The next two attacks took place in Matawan Creek near the town of Matawan on Wednesday, July 12. Located 30 miles (48 km) north of Spring Lake and inland of Raritan Bay, Matawan resembled a Midwestern town rather than an Atlantic beach resort. Matawan’s location made it an unlikely site for shark attacks. When Thomas Cottrell, a sea captain and Matawan resident, spotted an 8 ft (2.40m) long shark in the creek, the town dismissed him. Around 2:00 p.m. local boys, including epileptic Lester Stillwell, 11, were playing in the creek at an area called the Wyckoff dock when they saw what appeared to be an “old black weather-beaten board or a weathered log.” A dorsal fin appeared in the water and the boys realized it was a shark. Before Stillwell could climb from the creek, the shark attacked him and pulled him underwater.
The boys ran to town for help, and several men, including local businessman Watson Stanley Fisher, 24, came to investigate. Fisher and others dived into the creek to find Stillwell’s body, believing him to have suffered a seizure; Fisher was also attacked by the shark in front of the townspeople. He was pulled from the creek without recovering Stillwell’s body. His right thigh was severely injured and he bled to death at Monmouth Memorial Hospital in Long Branch at 5:30 p.m. Stillwell’s body was recovered 150 feet (46 m) upstream from the Wyckoff dock on July 14.

The fifth and final victim, Joseph Dunn, 14, of New York City was attacked a half-mile from the Wyckoff dock nearly 30 minutes after the attacks on Stillwell and Fisher. The shark bit his left leg, but Dunn was rescued by his brother and friend after a vicious tug-of-war battle with the shark. Joseph Dunn was taken to Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick; he recovered from the attack and was released on September 15, 1916.

** As the national media descended on Beach Haven, Spring Lake, and Matawan, the Jersey Shore attacks started a shark panic. According to Capuzzo, this panic was “unrivaled in American history,” “sweeping along the coasts of New York and New Jersey and spreading by telephone and wireless, letter and postcard.” At first, after the Beach Haven attack, scientists and the press reluctantly blamed the death of Charles Vansant on a shark. The New York Times reported that Vansant “was badly bitten in the surf … by a fish, presumably a shark.” Still, State Fish Commissioner of Pennsylvania and former director of the Philadelphia Aquarium James M. Meehan asserted in the Philadelphia Public Ledger that the shark was preying on the dog, but attacked Vansant by mistake. He specifically de-emphasized the threat sharks posed to humans :

“ Despite the death of Charles Vansant and the report that two sharks having been caught in that vicinity recently, I do not believe there is any reason why people should hesitate to go in swimming at the beaches for fear of man-eaters. The information in regard to the sharks is indefinite and I hardly believe that Vansant was attacked by a man-eater. Vansant was in the surf playing with a dog and it may be that a small shark had drifted in at high water, and was marooned by the tide. Being unable to move quickly and without food, he had come in to attack the dog and snapped at the man in passing. ”

The media’s response to the second attack was more sensational. Major American newspapers such as the Boston Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle placed the story on the front page. The New York Times’ headline read, “Shark Kills Bather Off Jersey Beach”. The growing panic had cost New Jersey resort owners an estimated $250,000 ($5,300,000 in 2013 dollars) in lost tourism, and bathing had declined 75 percent in some areas. A press conference was convened on July 8, 1916 at the American Museum of Natural History with scientists Frederic Augustus Lucas, John Treadwell Nichols, and Robert Cushman Murphy as panelists. To calm the growing panic, the three men stressed that a third attack was unlikely, although they were admittedly surprised that sharks had attacked at all. Nevertheless, Nichols—the only ichthyologist in the trio—warned swimmers to stay close to shore and to take advantage of the netted bathing areas installed at public beaches after the first attack.
Shark sightings increased along the Mid-Atlantic Coast following the attacks. On July 8, armed motorboats patrolling the beach at Spring Creek chased an animal they thought to be a shark, and Asbury Park’s Asbury Avenue Beach was closed after lifeguard Benjamin Everingham claimed to have beaten off a 12-foot (4 m) long shark with an oar. Sharks were spotted near Bayonne, New Jersey; Rocky Point, New York; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Jacksonville, Florida; and Mobile, Alabama, and a columnist from Field & Stream captured a sandbar shark in the surf at Beach Haven. Actress Gertrude Hoffmann was swimming at the Coney Island beach shortly after the Matawan attacks when she claimed to have encountered a shark. The New York Times noted that Hoffman “had the presence of mind to remember that she had read in the Times that a bather can scare away a shark by splashing, and she beat up the water furiously.” Hoffman was certain she was going to be devoured by the “Jersey man-eater”, but later admitted she was “not sure … whether she had had her trouble for nothing or had barely escaped death.”

Local New Jersey governments made efforts to protect bathers and the economy from man-eating sharks. The Fourth Avenue Beach at Asbury Park was enclosed with a steel-wire-mesh fence and patrolled by armed motorboats; it remained the only beach open following the Everingham incident. After the attacks on Stillwell, Fisher, and Dunn, residents of Matawan lined Matawan Creek with nets and detonated dynamite in an attempt to catch and kill the shark. Matawan mayor Arris B. Henderson ordered the Matawan Journal to print wanted posters offering a $100 reward ($2,100 in 2013 dollars) to anyone killing a shark in the creek. Despite the town’s efforts, no sharks were captured or killed in Matawan Creek. The “Matawan Journal” reported the shark account incident in the front page of its July 13, 1916 issue with another article about the capture of a shark in Keyport a neighboring town in the issue of July 20, 1916.

Resort communities along the Jersey Shore petitioned the federal government to aid local efforts to protect beaches and hunt sharks. The House of Representatives appropriated $5,000 ($110,000 in 2013 dollars) for eradicating the New Jersey shark threat, and President Woodrow Wilson scheduled a meeting with his Cabinet to discuss the attacks. Treasury secretary William Gibbs McAdoo suggested that the Coast Guard be mobilized to patrol the Jersey Shore and protect bathers. Shark hunts ensued across the coasts of New Jersey and New York; as the Atlanta Constitution reported on July 14, “Armed shark hunters in motor boats patrolled the New York and New Jersey coasts today while others lined the beaches in a concerted effort to exterminate the man-eaters … ” New Jersey governor James Fairman Fielder and local municipalities offered bounties to individuals hunting sharks. Hundreds of sharks were captured on the East Coast as a result of the attacks. The East Coast shark hunt is described as “the largest scale animal hunt in history.”

The “Jersey man-eater”

After the second incident, scientists and the public presented theories to explain which species of shark was responsible for the Jersey Shore attacks or whether multiple sharks were involved. Lucas and Nichols proposed that a northward-swimming rogue shark committed the attacks. They believed it would eventually arrive along New York’s coast: “Unless the shark came through the Harbor and went through the north through Hell Gate and Long Island Sound, it was presumed it would swim along the South Shore of Long Island and the first deep water inlet it reaches will be the Jamaica Bay.”
Witnesses of the Beach Haven attack estimated that the shark was 9 feet (3 m) long. A sea captain who saw the attack believed it was a Spanish shark driven from the Caribbean Sea decades earlier by bombings during the Spanish-American War. Several fishermen claimed to have caught the “Jersey man-eater” in the days following the attacks. A blue shark was captured on July 14 near Long Branch, and four days later the same Thomas Cottrell who had seen the shark in Matawan Creek claimed to have captured a sandbar shark with a gillnet near the mouth of the creek.

On July 14, Harlem taxidermist and Barnum and Bailey lion tamer Michael Schleisser caught a 7.5 foot (2.3 m), 325 pound (147 kg) shark while fishing in Raritan Bay only a few miles from the mouth of Matawan Creek. The shark nearly sank the boat before Schleisser killed it with a broken oar. When he opened the shark’s belly, he removed a “suspicious fleshy material and bones” that took up “about two-thirds of a milk crate” and “together weighed fifteen pounds.” Scientists identified the shark as a young great white and the ingested remains as human. Schleisser mounted the shark and placed it on display in the window of a Manhattan shop on Broadway but it was later lost. The only surviving photograph appeared in the Bronx Home News.
No further attacks were reported along the Jersey Shore in the summer of 1916 after the capture of Schleisser’s shark. Murphy and Lucas declared the great white to be the “Jersey man-eater”. Skeptical individuals, however, offered alternate hypotheses. In a letter to The New York Times, Barrett P. Smith of Sound Beach, New York wrote :

“ Having read with much interest the account of the fatality off Spring Lake, N.J., I should like to offer a suggestion somewhat at variance with the shark theory. In my opinion it is most unlikely that a shark was responsible, and I believe it much more likely that the attack was made by a sea turtle. I have spent much time at sea and along shore, and have several times seen turtles large enough to inflict just such wounds. These creatures are of a vicious disposition, and when annoyed are extremely dangerous to approach, and it is my idea that Bruder may have disturbed one while it was asleep on or close to the surface. ”

Another letter to The New York Times blamed the shark infestation on the maneuvers of German U-boats near America’s East Coast. The anonymous writer claimed, “These sharks may have devoured human bodies in the waters of the German war zone and followed liners to this coast, or even followed the Deutschland herself, expecting the usual toll of drowning men, women, and children.” The writer concluded, “This would account for their boldness and their craving for human flesh.”
Decades later, there is no consensus among researchers over Murphy and Lucas’s investigation and findings. Richard G. Fernicola published two studies of the event, and notes that “there are many theories behind the New Jersey attacks,” and all are inconclusive. Researchers such as Thomas Helm, Harold W. McCormick, Thomas B. Allen, William Young, Jean Campbell Butler, and Michael Capuzzo generally agree with Murphy and Lucas. However, the National Geographic Society reported in 2002 that “some experts are suggesting that the great white may not in fact be responsible for many of the attacks pinned on the species. These people say the real culprit behind many of the reported incidents—including the famous 1916 shark attacks in New Jersey that may have served as inspiration for Jaws—may be the lesser known bull shark.”

Biologists George A. Llano and Richard Ellis suggest that a bull shark could have been responsible for the Jersey Shore attacks. Bull sharks swim from the ocean into freshwater rivers and streams and have attacked people around the world. In his book Sharks: Attacks on Man (1975), Llano writes :

“ One of the most surprising aspects of the Matawan Creek attacks was the distance from the open sea. Elsewhere in the book are accounts of well-documented shark attacks at Ahwaz, Iran, which is 90 miles (140 km) upriver from the sea. It may also be of interest to note that sharks live in Lake Nicaragua, a fresh-water body, and in 1944 there was a bounty offered for dead freshwater sharks, as they had “killed and severely injured lake bathers recently.” ”

Ellis points out that the great white “is an oceanic species, and Schleisser’s shark was caught in the ocean. To find it swimming in a tidal creek is, to say the least, unusual, and may even be impossible. The bull shark, however, is infamous for its freshwater meanderings, as well as for its pugnacious and aggressive nature.” He admits that “the bull shark is not a common species in New Jersey waters, but it does occur more frequently than the white.”
In an interview with Michael Capuzzo, ichthyologist George H. Burgess surmises, “The species involved has always been doubtful and likely will continue to generate spirited debate.” Burgess, however, does not discount the great white :

“ The bull draws a lot of votes because the location, Matawan Creek, suggests brackish or fresh waters, a habitat that bulls frequent and whites avoid. However, our examination of the site reveals that the size of the “creek,” its depth, and salinity regime were closer to a marine embayment and that a smallish white clearly could have wandered into the area. Since an appropriate sized white shark with human remains in its stomach was captured nearby shortly after the attacks (and no further attacks occurred), it seems likely that this was the attacker involved in at least the Matawan attacks. The temporal and geographical sequence of attacks also suggests that earlier attacks may have involved the same shark. ”

The casualties of the 1916 attacks are listed in the International Shark Attack File—of which Burgess is director—as victims of a great white.
The increased presence of humans in the water proved a factor in the attacks: “As the worldwide human population continues to rise year after year, so does … interest in aquatic recreation. The number of shark attacks in any given year or region is highly influenced by the number of people entering the water.” However, the likelihood that one shark was involved is contested. Scientists such as Victor M. Coppleson and Jean Butler, relying on evidence presented by Lucas and Murphy in 1916, assert that a single shark was the attacker. On the other hand, Richard Fernicola notes that 1916 was a “shark year” as fishermen and captains were reporting hundreds of sharks swimming in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Ellis remarks that “to try to make the facts as we know them conform to the ‘rogue shark’ theory is stretching sensationalism and credibility beyond reasonable limits.” He admits, “The evidence is long gone, and we will never really know if it was one shark or several, one species or another, that was responsible.”

In 2011, further study was conducted in the Smithsonian Channel’s The Real Story: Jaws. The documentary takes a closer look at the series of events from different perpectives. It was demonstrated in the Matawan Creek attacks, for example, of how the full moon of the lunar cycle which would have coincided with the attacks would have raised the salinity in the water by more than double just a few hours before high tide. This would have shown support for the theory that a great white could have been responsible. Other evidence such as Joseph Dunn’s injury suggested that the type of bite was more likely made by a bull shark as opposed to a great white, leading some to believe more than one shark was likely involved in the five attacks.

*** Before 1916, American scholars doubted that sharks would attack a living person in the temperate waters of the United States without provocation. One skeptical scientist wrote, “There is a great difference between being attacked by a shark and being bitten by one.” He believed that sharks tangled in fishing nets or feeding on carrion might accidentally bite a nearby human. In 1891, millionaire banker and adventurer Hermann Oelrichs offered a $500 reward in the New York Sun “for an authenticated case of a man having been attacked by a shark in [the] temperate waters” north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. He wanted proof that “in temperate waters even one man, woman, or child, while alive, was ever attacked by a shark.” The reward went unclaimed and scientists remained convinced that the eastern coast of the United States was inhabited by harmless sharks.
Academics were skeptical that a shark could produce fatal wounds on human victims. Ichthyologist Henry Weed Fowler and curator Henry Skinner of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia asserted that a shark’s jaws did not have the power to sever a human leg in a single bite. Frederic Lucas, director of the American Museum of Natural History, questioned whether a shark even as large as 30 feet (9 m) could snap a human bone. He told the Philadelphia Inquirer in early 1916 that “it is beyond the power even of the largest Carcharodon to sever the leg of an adult man.” Lucas summed up his argument by pointing to Oelrichs’s unclaimed reward and that the chances of being attacked by a shark were “infinitely less than that of being struck by lightning and that there is practically no danger of an attack from a shark about our coasts.”

The Jersey Shore attacks compelled scientists in the United States to revise their assumptions that sharks were timid and powerless. In July 1916, ichthyologist and editor for the National Geographic Society Hugh McCormick Smith published an article in the Newark Star-Eagle describing some shark species as “harmless as doves and others the incarnation of ferocity.” He continued, “One of the most prodigious, and perhaps the most formidable of sharks is the man-eater, Carcharodon carcharias. It roams through all temperate and tropical seas, and everywhere is an object of dread. Its maximum length is forty feet and its teeth are three inches (76 mm) long.”
By the end of July 1916, John Nichols and Robert Murphy were taking the great white more seriously. In Scientific American, Murphy wrote that the “white shark is perhaps the rarest of all noteworthy sharks … their habits are little known, but they are said to feed to some extent on big sea turtles … Judging from its physical make-up, it would not hesitate to attack a man in open water.” He concluded that “because it is evident that even a relatively small white shark, weighing two or three hundred pounds, might readily snap the largest human bones by a jerk of its body, after it has bitten through the flesh.”
Robert Murphy and John Nichols wrote in October 1916 :

“ There is something peculiarly sinister in the shark’s make-up. The sight of his dark, lean [dorsal] fin lazily cutting zig-zags in the surface of some quiet, sparkling summer sea, and then slipping out of sight not to appear again, suggests an evil spirit. His leering, chinless face, his great mouth with its rows of knife-like teeth, which he knows too well to use on the fisherman’s gear; the relentless fury with which, when his last hour has come, he thrashes on deck and snaps at his enemies; his toughness, his brutal, nerveless vitality and insensibility to physical injury, fail to elicit the admiration one feels for the dashing, brilliant, destructive, gastronomic bluefish, tunny, or salmon. ”

After the Matawan attacks, Frederic Lucas admitted on the front page of The New York Times that he had underestimated sharks. The paper reported that “the foremost authority on sharks in this country has doubted that any shark ever attacked a human being, and has published his doubts, but the recent cases have changed his view.” Nichols later documented the occurrence of the great white shark in his biological survey Fishes of the Vicinity of New York City (1918), “Carcharodon carcharias (Linn.) White Shark. “Man-eater.” Accidental in summer. June to July 14, 1916.”

Cultural Impact

* While sharks had been seen as harmless, the pendulum of public opinion quickly swung to the other extreme, and sharks quickly came to be viewed not only as eating machines, but also as fearless, ruthless killers.
After the first attack, newspaper cartoonists began using sharks as caricatures for political figures, German U-boats, Victorian morality and fashion, polio, and the deadly heat wave threatening the Northeast. Fernicola notes, “Since 1916 was among the years that Americans were trying to break away from the rigidity and conservatism of the Victorian period, one comic depicted a risqué polka-dot bathing suit and advertised it as the secret weapon to keep sharks away from our swimmers.” Another cartoon depicted “an exasperated individual at the end of a dock that displays a DANGER: NO SWIMMING sign and mentions the three most emphasized ‘danger’ topics of the day: ‘Infantile Paralysis (polio), Epidemic Heat Wave, and Sharks in the Ocean’.” The cartoon is entitled “What’s a Family Man to Do?” With America’s growing distrust of Germany in 1916, cartoonists depicted U-boats with the mouth and fins of a shark assaulting Uncle Sam while he wades in the water.

* In 1974, writer Peter Benchley published Jaws, a novel about a rogue great white shark that terrorizes the fictional coastal community of Amity Island. Chief of police Martin Brody, biologist Matt Hooper, and fisherman Quint hunt the shark after it kills four people. The novel was adapted as the film Jaws by Steven Spielberg in 1975. Spielberg’s film makes reference to the attacks: Brody (Roy Scheider) and Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) urge Amity’s Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) to close the beaches on the Fourth of July after the deaths of two swimmers and a fisherman. Hooper explains to the mayor, “Look, the situation is that apparently a great white shark has staked a claim in the waters off Amity Island. And he’s going to continue to feed here as long as there is food in the water.” Brody adds, “And there’s no limit to what he’s gonna do! I mean we’ve already had three incidents, two people killed inside of a week. And it’s gonna happen again, it happened before! The Jersey beach! … 1916! Five people chewed up on the surf!” Richard Ellis, Richard Fernicola, and Michael Capuzzo suggest that the 1916 Jersey Shore attacks, Coppleson’s rogue shark theory, and the exploits of New York fisherman Frank Mundus inspired Benchley. The attacks are also briefly referred to in Benchley’s novel White Shark (1994).

* The 1916 attacks are the subject of three studies: Richard G. Fernicola’s In Search of the “Jersey Man-Eater” (1987) and Twelve Days of Terror (2001) and Michael Capuzzo’s Close to Shore (2001). Capuzzo offers an in-depth dramatization of the incident, and Fernicola examines the scientific, medical, and social aspects of the attacks. Fernicola’s research is the basis of an episode of the History Channel’s documentary series In Search of History titled “Shark Attack 1916” (2001) and the Discovery Channel’s docudrama 12 Days of Terror (2004). Fernicola also wrote and directed a 90-minute documentary called Tracking the Jersey Man-Eater. It was produced by the George Marine Library in 1991; however, it was never widely released.

* In 2008, Shore Thing, a short fictional film inspired by the attacks, directed by Lovari and James Hill was released and appeared in several U.S. film festivals. In December 2009, it received an award for Best Suspense Short at the NY International Independent Film & Video Festival.

* In 2009, Discovery Channel’s Shark Week had a two-hour documentary about all the attacks and the days after, titled Blood in the Water. The attacks at Matawan are the subject of the National Geographic Channel documentary Attacks of the Mystery Shark (2002), which examines the possibility that a bull shark was responsible for killing Stanley Fisher and Lester Stillwell.

* In 2011, Smithsonian Channel’s The Real Story: Jaws examines the series of events in detail and explores the varying perspectives.

* Experimental progressive post-metal band Giant Squid based their 2005 album “Monster in the Creek” on the attacks and the cover art featured a photo of the Matawan creek.

2. “Black December”

Black December refers to at least nine shark attacks on humans causing six deaths that occurred along the coast of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, from December 18, 1957 to April 5, 1958.

In December 1957 several key factors occurred simultaneously to attract sharks to the Durban area, including:
(1) whaling ships operating in the area;
(2) rivers had flooded and washed livestock into the Indian Ocean and made the river deltas murky;
(3) recent resort development had increased the number of tourists swimming off the beaches.
Adding to the confusion was the lack of adequate shark research and the knowledge to prevent shark attacks in 1957.

Victims :

1. NAME :

Fay Jones Bester

AGE :

28

DATE :

1958-04-05

SPECIES :

unknown

LOCATION :

Uvongo

COMMENTS :

Fatal attack, while surfing.

2. NAME :

Nicholaas Badenhorst

AGE :

29

DATE :

1958- 04-03

SPECIES :

unknown

LOCATION :

Port Edward

COMMENTS :

Fatal attack, arm severed above elbow abdomen & leg bitten, while swimming.

3. NAME :

Derryck Garth Prinsloo

AGE :

42

DATE :

1958-01-04

SPECIES :

Great white shark

LOCATION :

Scottburgh

COMMENTS :

Fatal attack, mauled below waist femoral artery severed, while standing.

4. NAME :

Zulu male

AGE :

–

DATE :

1958

SPECIES :

unknown

LOCATION :

MaKakatana River

COMMENTS :

5. NAME :

Julia Painting

AGE :

14

DATE :

1957-12-30

SPECIES :

unknown

LOCATION :

Margate

COMMENTS :

Non-fatal attack, left arm severed torso bitten thigh lacerated many abrasions, while standing.

6. NAME :

Donald Webster

AGE :

20

DATE :

1957-12-26

SPECIES :

unknown

LOCATION :

Port Edward

COMMENTS :

Non-fatal attack, Lacerations on head and neck, while skindiving.

7. NAME :

Vernon James Berry

AGE :

23

DATE :

1957-12-23

SPECIES :

unknown

LOCATION :

Margate

COMMENTS :

Fatal attack, right arm broken & stripped of flesh left hand severed above wrist lower abdomen buttocks & thigh bitten, while floating.

8. NAME :

Allan Green

AGE :

15

DATE :

1957-12-20

SPECIES :

unknown

LOCATION :

Uvongo

COMMENTS :

Fatal attack, multiple severe injuries, while standing.

9. NAME :

Robert Wherley

AGE :

16

DATE :

1957-12-18

SPECIES :

unknown

LOCATION :

Karridene

COMMENTS :

Non-fatal attack, left leg severed at knee part of left thigh removed, while body surfing.

Aftermath

* Tourists fled the Durban area during Black December causing a devastating impact on the local economy. The local authorities desperately made attempts to protect swimmers and surfers from sharks. These attempts included enclosures built from wooden poles and netting; however, both were ineffective and were destroyed by the surf. A South African Navy frigate dropped depth charges causing few shark fatalities and attracted many more sharks into the area that feasted on the dead fish.

* As a result of Black December the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board previously the Natal Sharks Board and Natal Anti-Shark Measures Board was formed in 1962. The organisations mandate is to maintain shark nets and drum lines at 38 places, along 320 km of coastline off the KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, to protect bathers and surfers from shark attacks.

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Categories HISTORY,GEOGRAPHY

FEMALE WATER SPIRITS – part 2 –

10 Aug

source : wikipedia.com

BEREHYNIA

Berehynia or Bereginia is a female spirit (Vila) in Slavic mythology, which recently came to be regarded as a “Slavic goddess” with a function of “hearth mother, protectoress of the home” in late 20th century Ukrainian romantic nationalism centered on matriarchal myth.
The word originates in the pre-Christian Slavic mythology but in the modern usage it has two meanings. The confusion in the name’s etymology owes to the fact that a Slavic word bereh (Ukrainian) or bereg (Russian) means a river bank, while the word berehty (Ukrainian) or berech’ (Russian) is a verb that means to protect.

Originally, obscure shadowy ghost-like naiads similar to Rusalkas lived along the rivers, lakes, and ponds, and were considered ill-tempered and dangerous. A water-bank where they were thought to be found was to be avoided by young men and women, especially in the dark.
Early in the 20th century fakeloristic scholarship speculated that the Berehyni combined a prehistoric Scythian earth-goddess and rusalky (guardians of the banks).
Since Ukrainian independence in 1991, she has undergone a fakeloric metamorphosis, and today is identified as a combination of the “hearth-mother” (associated with the guardianship of the nation itself) and the rusalka. This metamorphosis has its roots in the late 1980s, as several Ukrainian writers sought to personify their vision of an ideal Ukrainian woman. Consequently, Berehynia today also has a place in Ukrainian nationalism, feminism, and neopaganism.

In 2001, a column with a monument to Berehynia on top, as a protector of Kiev (pictured), was erected at Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in the center of the city, on the site of the former Lenin monument. Kiev’s historic protector Archangel Michael (pictured at the Coat of Arms of Kiev) older monument is located just across at the same square.

MELUSINE

Melusine (or Melusina) is a figure of European legends and folklore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers.
She is usually depicted as a woman who is a serpent or fish from the waist down (much like a mermaid). She is also sometimes illustrated with wings, two tails or both.
Melusine is sometimes used as a heraldic figure, typically in German coats of arms, where she supports one scaly tail in each arm. She may appear crowned. The Coat of Arms of Warsaw features a siren (identified in Polish as a syrenka) very much like a depiction of Melusine, brandishing a sword and shield. She is the water-spirit from the Vistula who identified the proper site for the city to Boreslaus of Masovia in the late 13th century.

The most famous literary version of Melusine tales, that of Jean d’Arras, compiled about 1382–1394, was worked into a collection of “spinning yarns” as told by ladies at their spinning. Coudrette (Couldrette) wrote The Romans of Partenay or of Lusignen: Otherwise known as the Tale of Melusine, giving source and historical notes, dates and background of the story. He goes in to detail and depth about the relationship of Melusine and Raymondin, their initial meeting and the complete story.
The tale was translated into German in 1456 by Thüring von Ringoltingen, the version of which became popular as a chapbook. It was later translated into English c. 1500, and often printed in both the 15th century and the 16th century. A prose version is entitled the Chronique de la princesse.
It tells how in the time of the crusades, Elynas, the King of Albany (an old name for Scotland or Alba), went hunting one day and came across a beautiful lady in the forest. She was Pressyne, mother of Melusine. He persuaded her to marry him but she agreed, only on the promise — for there is often a hard and fatal condition attached to any pairing of fay and mortal — that he must not enter her chamber when she birthed or bathed her children. She gave birth to triplets. When he violated this taboo, Pressyne left the kingdom, together with her three daughters, and traveled to the lost Isle of Avalon.

The three girls — Melusine, Melior, and Palatyne — grew up in Avalon. On their fifteenth birthday, Melusine, the eldest, asked why they had been taken to Avalon. Upon hearing of their father’s broken promise, Melusine sought revenge. She and her sisters captured Elynas and locked him, with his riches, in a mountain. Pressyne became enraged when she learned what the girls had done, and punished them for their disrespect to their father. Melusine was condemned to take the form of a serpent from the waist down every Saturday. In other stories, she takes on the form of a mermaid.
Raymond of Poitou came across Melusine in a forest of Coulombiers in Poitou in France, and proposed marriage. Just as her mother had done, she laid a condition, that he must never enter her chamber on a Saturday. He broke the promise and saw her in the form of a part-woman part-serpent. She forgave him. When during a disagreement, he called her a “serpent” in front of his court, she assumed the form of a dragon, provided him with two magic rings, and flew off, never to return.

In “The Wandering Unicorn” by Manuel Mujica Láinez, Melusine tells her tale of several centuries of existence from her original curse to the time of the Crusades.

Legends

Melusine legends are especially connected with the northern, most Celtic areas of Gaul, Poitou and the Low Countries. Sir Walter Scott told a Melusine tale in The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802–1803) confident that :

“ the reader will find the fairy of Normandy, or Bretagne, adorned with all the splendour of Eastern description. The fairy Melusina, also, who married Guy de Lusignan, Count of Poitou, under condition that he should never attempt to intrude upon her privacy, was of this latter class. She bore the count many children, and erected for him a magnificent castle by her magical art. Their harmony was uninterrupted until the prying husband broke the conditions of their union, by concealing himself to behold his wife make use of her enchanted bath. Hardly had Melusina discovered the indiscreet intruder, than, transforming herself into a dragon, she departed with a loud yell of lamentation, and was never again visible to mortal eyes ; although, even in the days of Brantome, she was supposed to be the protectress of her descendants, and was heard wailing as she sailed upon the blast round the turrets of the castle of Lusignan the night before it was demolished. ”

* When Count Siegfried of the Ardennes bought the feudal rights to Luxembourg in 963, his name became connected with the local version of Melusine. In 1997 Luxembourg issued a postage stamp commemorating this Melusina, with essentially the same magic gifts as the ancestress of the Lusignans. This Melusina magically made the castle of Bock appear the morning after their wedding. On her terms of marriage, she too required one day of absolute privacy each week. Alas, Sigefroid, as the Luxembourgeois call him, “could not resist temptation, and on one of the forbidden days he spied on her in her bath and discovered her to be a mermaid. When he let out a surprised cry, Melusina caught sight of him, and her bath immediately sank into the solid rock, carrying her with it. Melusina surfaces briefly every seven years as a beautiful woman or as a serpent, holding a small golden key in her mouth. Whoever takes the key from her will set her free and may claim her as his bride.”

* Martin Luther knew and believed in the story of another version of Melusine, die Melusina zu Lucelberg (Lucelberg in Silesia), whom he referred to several times as a succubus (Works, Erlangen edition, volume 60, pp 37–42). Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote the tale of Die Neue Melusine in 1807 and published it as part of Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre. The playwright Franz Grillparzer brought Goethe’s tale to the stage and Felix Mendelssohn provided a concert overture “The Fair Melusina,” his Opus 32.

* Melusine is one of the pre-Christian water-faeries who were sometimes responsible for changelings. The “Lady of the Lake”, who spirited away the infant Lancelot and raised the child, was such a water nymph. Other European water sprites dangerous to men include Lorelei and the nixie.

* “Melusina” would seem to be an uneasy name for a girl-child in these areas of Europe, but Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal and Munster, mistress of George I of Great Britain, was christened Melusine in 1667.

* The chronicler Giraud le Cambrien reported that Richard I of England was fond of telling a tale according to which he was a descendant of a countess of Anjou who was in fact the fairy Melusine, concluding that his whole family “came from the devil and would return to the devil”.

MORGENS

Morgens, Morgans or Mari-Morgans are Welsh and Breton water spirits that drown men. They may lure men to their death by their own sylphic beauty, or with glimpses of underwater gardens with buildings of gold or crystal. They are also blamed for heavy flooding that destroys crops or villages. In the story of the drowning of Ys, a city in Brittany, the king’s daughter, Dahut, is the cause, and she becomes a sea morgen.

The morgens are eternally young, and like sirens they sit in the water and comb their hair seductively. In Arthurian legend, particularly Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini, the ruler of Avalon is referred to as “Morgen”. As such, the origin of Morgan le Fay may be connected to these Breton myths.
Tales of morgens are preserved in the British countryside, even some parts of South West England, like the one from western Somerset, where a fisherman adopts an infant morgen, only to have her revert to the sea when she grows up.

PINCOYA

The Pincoya is, according to local mythology, a female “water spirit” of the Chilotan Seas. The Pincoya is said to have long blond hair, be of incomparable beauty, be cheerful and sensual, and rise from the depths of the sea.

Naked and pure, she personifies the fertility of marine species. Through her ritual dance she provides the chilote (resident of Chiloé) with an abundance or deficiency of fish and seafood. If she performs her dance facing the sea, it means that these shores will have an abundance of fish. When she dances facing the mountains, her back to the sea, seafood will be scarce. Chiloean mythology is appreciative of the Pincoya, believed to be good, beautiful and humanitarian. According to other legends, Pincoya is the daughter of Millalobo (king of sea, in chilote mythology) and the human Huenchula. Her sister is the Sirena chilota (a type of Mermaid) and her brother is Pincoy (who also is her husband). The three siblings lead and guide the drowned sailors onto a large phantom ship, the Caleuche, sailing the seas at night around the southern island of Chiloé in southern Chile. The ship appears briefly intact with sounds of a party on board, but quickly vanishes. Myth has it that once on board, the dead can resume an existence as if they were alive again.

SIRENA CHILOTA

La Sirena chilota is an aquatic creature belonging to the Chilote mythology. Perhaps its origin is due to binding of the myths of the Sumpall of the Mapuche mythology and the Mermaid of European mythology.

Like to the mermaids, the siren chilota is characterized by a body half fish and half woman, with blonde hair and golden scales; and her human side would look like a very beautiful teen. She would be the youngest daughter of Millalobo (king of sea, in chilote mythology) and the human Huenchula. Commissioned by her father, she has the task of caring for all fish. Also helps her siblings (the Pincoya and Pincoy) to carry the bodies of drowned sailors, toward the Caleuche, for the purpose of reviving the sailors and to be happy.

RHINEMAEDENS

The Rhinemaidens are the three water-nymphs (Rheintochter or “Rhine daughters”) who appear in Richard Wagner’s opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Their individual names are Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Flosshilde, although they are generally treated as a single entity and they act together accordingly. Of the 34 characters in the Ring cycle, they are the only ones who did not originate in the Old Norse Eddas. Wagner created his Rhinemaidens from other legends and myths, most notably the Nibelungenlied which contains stories involving water-sprites (nixies) or mermaids. The key concepts associated with the Rhinemaidens in the Ring operas—their flawed guardianship of the Rhine gold, and the condition (the renunciation of love) through which the gold could be stolen from them and then transformed into a means of obtaining world power—are wholly Wagner’s own invention, and are the elements that initiate and propel the entire drama.
The Rhinemaidens are the first and the last characters seen in the four-opera cycle, appearing both in the opening scene of Das Rheingold, and in the final climactic spectacle of Gotterdammerung, when they rise from the Rhine waters to reclaim the ring from Brünnhilde’s ashes. They have been described as morally innocent, yet they display a range of sophisticated emotions, including some that are far from guileless. Seductive and elusive, they have no relationship to any of the other characters, and no indication is given as to how they came into existence, beyond occasional references to an unspecified “father”.

The various musical themes associated with the Rhinemaidens are regarded as among the most lyrical in the entire Ring cycle, bringing to it rare instances of comparative relaxation and charm. The music contains important melodies and phrases which are reprised and developed elsewhere in the operas to characterise other individuals and circumstances, and to relate plot developments to the source of the narrative. It is reported that Wagner played the Rhinemaidens’ lament at the piano, on the night before he died in Venice, in 1883.

* Alone of the Ring’s characters, the Rhinemaidens do not originate from the Poetic Edda or Prose Edda, the Icelandic sources for most of Norse mythology. Water-sprites (German: Nixen) appear in many European myths and legends, often but not invariably in a form of disguised malevolence. Wagner drew widely and loosely from those legends when compiling his Ring narrative, and the probable origin of his Rhinemaidens is in the German Nibelungenlied. In one part of the Nibelungenlied narrative Hagen and Gunther encounter certain “wise women” (thereafter described as water-sprites), bathing and refreshing themselves in the waters of the Danube. Hagen creeps softly towards them, but he is seen, whereupon the sprites retreat and mock him from a distance. Hagen then steals their clothes. To obtain the return of these, one of the sprites, Hadeburg, promises falsely that Hagen and Gunther will find honor and glory when they enter Etzel’s kingdom. After their clothes are returned, another sprite, Sigelinde (a name Wagner would adopt again for use elsewhere), tells Hagen that her sister has lied. If they go to Etzel’s land, they will die there.
This story, itself unrelated to the Ring drama, is echoed by Wagner both in the opening Das Rheingold scene and in the first scene in Act III of Gotterdammerung. Wagner first adapted the story for use in his early libretto of Siegfried’s Death (which eventually became Gotterdammerung), introducing three unnamed water-maids (Wasserjungfrauen), and locating them in the Rhine, where they warn Siegfried of his impending death. Later these water-maids became Rhinemaidens (Rheintochter), and were given individual names: Flosshilde, Wellgunde, and Bronnlinde. As Wagner continued working on his reverse chronology from Siegfried’s death, he arrived at what he determined was the initial act of the drama — Alberich’s theft of the Rhine gold. Believing that a simple abduction of the unguarded gold would lack dramatic force, Wagner made the Rhinemaidens the guardians of the gold, and he introduced the “renunciation of love” condition. Bronnlinde became Woglinde, probably to avoid confusion with Brünnhilde.

Wagner may also have been influenced by the Rhine River-based German legend of Lorelei, the lovelorn young maiden who drowns herself in the river and becomes a siren, luring fishermen onto the rocks by her singing. Further possible sources lie in Greek mythology and literature. Similarities exist between the maiden guardians in the Hesperides myth and the Rhinemaidens of Das Rheingold; three females guard a highly desired golden treasure that is stolen in the telling of each tale. Wagner was an enthusiastic reader of Aeschylus, including his Prometheus Bound which has a chorus of Oceanids or water nymphs. One author, Rudolph Sabor, sees a link between the Oceanids’ treatment of Prometheus and the Rhinemaidens’ initial tolerance of Alberich. Just as in Greek myth the Oceanids are the daughters of the titan sea god Oceanus, in Norse mythology—specifically the Poetic Edda—the jötunn (similar to a giant) sea god Aegir has nine daughters. The name of one of these means “wave” (Welle in German) and is a possible source for Wellgunde’s name.

Wagner’s operas do not reveal where the Rhinemaidens came from, or whether they have any connection to other characters. Whereas most of the characters in the cycle are inter-related, through birth, marriage, or sometimes both, the Rhinemaidens are seemingly independent. The identity of their father who entrusted them with the guardianship of the gold is not given in the text. Some Wagnerean scholars have suggested that he may be a “Supreme Being” who is the father of Wotan and all the gods—indeed, of all creation. Others take the German Rheintöchter literally and say that they are the daughters of the Rhine River. Whatever is surmised, the Rhinemaidens are in a different category from Wotan and the other gods, who are destroyed by fire at the end of Götterdämmerung, while the Rhinemaidens swim happily away in the river, bearing their recovered treasure.

* The Rhinemaidens have been described as the drama’s “most seductive but most elusive characters”, and in one analysis as representatives of “seduction by infantile fantasy”. They act essentially as a unity, with a composite yet elusive personality. Apart from Flosshilde’s implied seniority, demonstrated by occasional light rebukes and illustrated musically by awarding the role to a deeper-voiced contralto or mezzo, their characters are undifferentiated. In The Perfect Wagnerite, his 1886 analysis of the Ring drama as political allegory, George Bernard Shaw describes the Rhinemaidens as “thoughtless, elemental, only half-real things, very much like modern young ladies”. The attributes most apparent initially are charm and playfulness, combined with a natural innocence; their joy in the gold they guard derives from its beauty alone, even though they know its latent power. However, this veneer of childlike simplicity is misleading; aside from proving themselves irresponsible as guardians, they are also provocative, sarcastic and cruel in their interaction with Alberich. When the demigod Loge reports that the Rhinemaidens need Wotan’s help to regain the gold, Fricka, the goddess of marriage, calls them a “watery brood” (Wassergezucht) and complains about the many men they have lured away with their “treacherous bathing”. They are beguiling and flirtatious with Siegfried, but finally wise as revealed by the undisclosed counsel which they give to Brunnhilde. Sabor sees the personality of the Rhinemaidens as a blend of the “good hearted nature” of the Oceanids and the “austerity” (including the willingness to drown people) of the daughters of Aegir.

The first lines sung by Woglinde in the Ring are dominated by wordless vocalisations. Weia! Waga! … Wagala weia! Wallala weiala weia! This attracted comment both at the 1869 premiere of Rheingold and the 1876 premiere of the entire Ring, with Wagner’s work being dismissed as “Wigalaweia-Musik”. In a letter to Nietzsche dated 12 June 1872, Wagner explained that he had derived Weiawaga from old German and that it was related to Weihwasser, meaning holy water. Other words were intended as parallels to those found in German nursery lullabies (‘Eia Poppeia’, ‘Heija Poppeia’ and ‘Aia Bubbeie’ are common forms). Thus Woglinde’s lines portray both the childish innocence of the Rhinemaidens and the holiness of Nature.
The Rhinemaidens’ sorrow in the loss of the gold is deep and heartfelt. As the gods are crossing the rainbow bridge into Valhalla at the end of Das Rheingold, Loge ironically suggests that, in the absence of the gold, the maidens should “bask in the gods’ new-found radiance”. The maidens’ lament then becomes a stern reproof: “Tender and true are only the depths”, they sing; “False and cowardly is all that rejoices up there”. In the final Götterdämmerung scene they show ruthlessness as, having recovered the ring, they drag the hapless Hagen down into the waters of the Rhine.

The Rhinemaidens are the only prominent characters seen definitely alive at the end of the drama; the fates of a few others are ambiguous, but most have certainly perished. Despite the relative brevity of their roles in the context of the four-opera cycle, they are key figures; their careless guardianship of the gold and their provocation of Alberich are the factors which determine all that follows. Wagner himself devised the “renunciation of love” provision whereby the gold could be stolen and then used to forge a ring with power to rule the world. Since the ring is made from the stolen gold, only its restoration to the Rhinemaidens’ care in the waters of the Rhine will lift the curse on it. Hence, the return of the stolen property provides a unifying thematic consistency to Wagner’s complex story.

PEG POWLER

The Peg Powler is a hag from English folklore with green skin, long hair and sharp teeth who is said to inhabit the River Tees. She grabs the ankles of those who wander too close to the water’s edge, especially naughty children, and pulls them under the water and drowns them; in Middleton In Teesdale this is referred to as the High Green ghost.

It is highly similar to the Dutch folklore figure Haantje Pik, the Slavic water spirit Vodyanoy, and the German water spirit Hastrman. Grindylows and Jenny Greenteeth are similar water spirits.

JENNY GREENTEETH

Jenny Greenteeth is a figure in English folklore. A river hag, similar to Peg Powler or a grindylow, she would pull children or the elderly into the water and drown them. She was often described as green-skinned, with long hair, and sharp teeth. She is called Jinny Greenteeth in Lancashire, but in Cheshire and Shropshire she is called Ginny Greenteeth, Jeannie Greenteeth, Wicked Jenny, or Peg o’ Nell.
She is likely to have been an invention to frighten children from dangerous waters similar to the Slavic Rusalka, the Kappa in Japanese mythology, or Australia’s Bunyip, but other folklorists have seen her as a memory of sacrificial practices.
A similar figure in Jamaican folklore is called the River Mumma (River Mother). She is said to live at the fountainhead of large rivers in Jamaica sitting on top of a rock, combing her long black hair with a gold comb. She usually appears at midday and she disappears if she observes anyone approaching. However, if an intruder sees her first and their eyes meet, terrible things will happen to the intruder.

The name is also used to describe pondweed or duckweed, which can form a continuous mat over the surface of a small body of water, making it misleading and potentially treacherous, especially to unwary children. With this meaning the name is common around Liverpool and south west Lancashire.

MAMI WATA

Mami Wata is venerated in West, Central, Southern Africa, and in the African diaspora in the Caribbean and parts of North and South America. Mami Wata spirits are usually female, but are sometimes male.
Mami Wata possesses African beauty. The appearance of her hair ranges from straight, curly to kinky black and combed straight back. In many parts of West and Central Africa, “Mami Wata” where “Mami” means woman “Wata” meaning water this translates to a mermaid or humanistic water entity.

Mami Wata is often described as a mermaid-like figure, with a woman’s upper body (often nude) and the hindquarters of a fish or serpent. In other tales, Mami Wata is fully human in appearance (though never human). The existence and spiritual importance of Mami Wata is deeply rooted in the ancient tradition and mythology of the coastal southeastern Nigerians (Efik, Ibibio and Annang people). Mami Wata often carries expensive baubles such as combs, mirrors, and watches. A large snake (symbol of divination and divinity) frequently accompanies her, wrapping itself around her and laying its head between her breasts. Other times, she may try to pass as completely human, wandering busy markets or patronising bars. She may also manifest in a number of other forms, including as a man. In the Yoruba tradition, the mother goddess Yemaja has been recently associated with Mami Wata in popular culture. Traders in the 20th century carried similar beliefs with them from Senegal to as far as Zambia. As the Mami Wata traditions continues to re-emerge, native water deities were subsumed into it.

Traditions on both sides of the Atlantic tell of the spirit abducting her followers or random people whilst they are swimming or boating. She brings them to her paradisiacal realm, which may be underwater, in the spirit world, or both. Should she allow them to leave, the travellers usually return in dry clothing and with a new spiritual understanding reflected in their gaze. These returnees often grow wealthier, more attractive, and more easygoing after the encounter.
Van Stipriaan further reports that other tales describe river travellers (usually men) chancing upon the spirit. She is inevitably grooming herself, combing her hair, and peering at herself in a mirror. Upon noticing the intruder, she flees into the water and leaves her possessions behind. The traveller then takes the invaluable items. Later, Mami Wata appears to the thief in his dreams to demand the return of her things. Should he agree, she further demands a promise from him to be sexually faithful to her. Agreement grants the person riches; refusal to return the possessions or to be faithful brings the man ill fortune.
Her worship is as diverse as her initiates, priesthood and worshippers, although some parallels may be drawn. Groups of people may gather in her name, but the deity is much more prone to interacting with followers on a one-on-one basis. She thus has many priests and mediums in both Africa, America and in the Caribbean who are specifically born and initiated to them.

In Nigeria, devotees typically wear red and white clothing, as these colors represent that particular Mami’s dual nature. Igbo iconography, red represents such qualities as death, destruction, heat, maleness, physicality, and power. In contrast, white symbolises death, but also can symbolize beauty, creation, femaleness, new life, spirituality, translucence, water, and wealth. This regalia may also include a cloth snake wrapped about the waist. The Mami Wata shrines may also be decorated in these colors, and items such as bells, carvings, Christian or Indian prints, dolls, incense, spirits, and remnants of previous sacrifices often adorn such places.
Intense dancing accompanied by musical instruments such as African guitars or harmonicas often forms the core of Mami Wata worship. Followers dance to the point of entering a trance. At this point, Mami Wata possesses the person and speaks to him or her. Offerings to the spirit are also important, and Mami Wata prefers gifts of delicious food and drink, alcohol, fragrant objects (such as pomade, powder, incense, and soap), and expensive goods like jewelry. Modern worshippers usually leave her gifts of manufactured goods, such as Coca-Cola or designer jewelry.
Nevertheless, she largely wants her followers to be healthy and well off. More broadly, people blame the spirit for all sorts of misfortune. In Cameroon, for example, Mami Wata is ascribed with causing the strong undertow that kills many swimmers each year along the coast.

According to Bastian, Mami Wata’s association with sex and lust is somewhat paradoxically linked to one with fidelity. According to a Nigerian tradition, male followers may encounter the spirit in the guise of a beautiful, sexually promiscuous woman, such as a prostitute. In Nigerian popular stories, Mami Wata may seduce a favoured male devotee and then show herself to him following coitus. She then demands his complete sexual faithfulness and secrecy about the matter. Acceptance means wealth and fortune; rejection spells the ruin of his family, finances, and job.
Another prominent aspect of the Mami Wata deities is their connection to healing. If someone comes down with an incurable, languorous illness, Mami Wata often takes the blame. The illness is evidence that Mami Wata has taken an interest in the afflicted person and that only she can cure him or her. Similarly, several other ailments may be attributed to the water spirit. In Nigeria, for example, she takes the blame for everything from headaches to sterility.
In fact, barren mothers often call upon the spirit to cure their affliction. Many traditions hold that Mami Wata herself is barren, so if she gives a woman a child, that woman inherently becomes more distanced from the spirit’s true nature. The woman will thus be less likely to become wealthy or attractive through her devotion to Mami Wata. Images of women with children often decorate shrines to the spirit.

* As other deities become absorbed into the figure of Mami Wata, the spirit often takes on characteristics unique to a particular region or culture. In Trinidad and Tobago, for example, Maman Dlo plays the role of guardian of nature, punishing overzealous hunters or woodcutters. She is the lover of Papa Bois, a nature deity.

* It is believed that all of ancient Africa possessed a multitude of water-spirit traditions before the first contact with Europeans. Most of these were regarded as female, and dual natures of good and evil were not uncommon, reflecting the fact that water is both an important means of providing communication, food, drink, trade, and transportation, but at the same time, it can drown people, flood fields or villages, and provide passage to intruders. Van Stipriaan suggests that she may be based on the West African manatee; in fact, “Mami Wata” is a common name for this animal in the region. Salmons argues that the mermaid image may have come into being after contact with Europeans. The ships of traders and slavers often had carvings of mermaid figures on their prows, for example, and tales of mermaids were popular among sailors of the time. On the other hand, white is traditionally associated with the spirit world in many cultures of Nigeria. The people of the Cross River area often whiten their skin with talcum or other substances for rituals and for cosmetic reasons, for example.
Van Stipriaan Liberian traders of the Kru ethnic group moved up and down the west coast of Africa from Liberia to Cameroon beginning in the 19th century. They may have spread their own water-spirit beliefs with them and helped to standardise conceptions in West Africa. Their perceived wealth also helped establish the spirit as one of good fortune.

** According to photographer Van Stipriaan and some western anthropologists, the various West African religions came to resemble one another during the 20th century, especially in urban areas. The homogenisation was largely the result of greater communication and mobility of individuals from town to town and country to country, though links between the spirit’s nature and the perils of the urban environment have also been proposed. This led to a new level of standarisation of priests, initiations of new devotees, healing rituals, and temples.
The 20th century also led to Mami Wata’s reemergence in much of Central and Southern Africa. In the mid-1950s, traders imported copies of The Snake Charmer from Bombay and England and sold them throughout Africa. West African traders moved her to Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in that same decade. There the spirit became a popular subject of Congolese folk painters, who placed her on the walls of bars, stores, and marketplace stalls. Senegalese traders and Congolese immigrants probably brought her worship to Zambia by the 1970s. Meanwhile, Congolese and Zambian artists spread Mami Wata images throughout public places in Zambia. Further diffusion might have occurred during the Biafran Secessionist War in Nigeria, which began in 1967. Refugees fled to all parts of West and Central Africa, bringing with them their belief in the water spirit.

Modern DRC, Lesotho, South Africa, and Zambia today form the current boundary of the Mami Wata cult, albeit a blurred one. The pan-African water deity is assimilating native water spirits in this region, many of them serpent figures. Some examples are the Congolese-Zambian chitapo or nakamwale, the South African umamlambo, and the Sotho mamolapo or mamogashoa. The most visible evidence of this absorption is that many of these creatures are today viewed as mermaids rather than snakes, their traditional form. These adoptions often lead to confusion when aspects of more than one being become amalgamated under the name “Mami Wata”. In Southern Africa, for example, Mami Wata is sometimes said to be able to fly around in the form of a tornado, an adopted aspect from the khanyapa water spirit.

*** The new environment only served to emphasize the enslaved’s connection to water. In Guiana, for example, slaves had to fight back swamp waters on the plantations they worked. She was first mentioned in Dutch Guiana in the 1740s in the journal of an anonymous colonist :

“ It sometimes happens that one or the other of the black slaves either imagines truthfully, or out of rascality pretends to have seen and heard an apparition or ghost which they call water mama, which ghost would have ordered them not to work on such or such a day, but to spend it as a holy day for offering with the blood of a white hen, to sprinkle this or that at the water-side and more of that monkey-business, adding in such cases that if they do not obey this order, shortly Watermama will make their child or husband etc. die or harm them otherwise. ”

Slaves worshipped the spirit by dancing and then falling into a trancelike state. In the 1770s, the Dutch rulers outlawed the ritual dances associated with the spirit. The governor, J. Nepveu, wrote that :

“ the Papa, Nago, Arada and other slaves who commonly are brought here under the name Fida [Ouidah] slaves, have introduced certain devilish practices into their dancing, which they have transposed to all other slaves; when a certain rhythm is played… they are possessed by their god, which is generally called Watramama. ”

Native Americans of the colony adopted Watermama from the slaves and merged her with their own water spirits.
By the 19th century, an influx of enslaved Africans from other regions had relegated Watermama to a position in the pantheon of the deities of the Surinamese Winti religion. When Winti was outlawed in the 1970s, her religious practices lost some of their importance in Suriname. Furthermore, a relative lack of freedom compared to their African brethren prevented the homgenisation that occurred with the Mami Wata cult across the Atlantic.

Names of Mami Wata

Benin – MAWA-LISU
Brazil – YEMANYA/YEMAYA
Rep.of the Congo – KUITIKUITI/MBOZE/MAKANGA/BUNZI/KAMBIZI
Colombia – MOHANA/MADRE DE AGUA
Cuba – YEMANYA/YEMAYA
Democratic Rep.of Congo – LA SIRENE/MADAME POISSON/MAMBA MUNTU
Dominica – MAMAN DE L’EAU/MAMAN DLO/MAMA GLO
Guinea – MAMY WATA
French Guiana – MAMADILO
Ghana – MAAME WATER
Grenada – MAMADJO
Guadeloupe – MAMAN DE L’EAU/MAMAN DLO
Guyana – WATRAMAMA
Haiti – LA SIRENE/ERZULIE/SIMBI
Jamaica – RIVER MAMA/RIVER MAIDEN
Martinique – LAMANTE/MANMAN DLO
Netherlands Antilles – MAMAN DE L’EAU/MAMAN DLO
Nigeria – OWUMIRI/OBANAMEN/OBA N’AMEN/YEMOJA
Suriname – WATERMAMA/WATRAMAMA
Trinidad and Tobago – MAMAN DE L’EAU/MAMAN DGLO/MAMAN DLO/MAMA GLOW.

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Categories OTHERS...

FEMALE WATER SPIRITS – part 1 –

9 Aug

source : wikipedia.com

NAIAD

In Greek mythology, the Naiads, were a type of nymph (female spirit) who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of freshwater.
They are distinct from river gods, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes, such as pre-Mycenaean Lerna in the Argolid.
Naiads were associated with fresh water, as the Oceanids were with saltwater and the Nereids specifically with the Mediterranean, but because the Greeks thought of the world’s waters as all one system, which percolated in from the sea in deep cavernous spaces within the earth, there was some overlap. Arethusa, the nymph of a spring, could make her way through subterranean flows from the Peloponnesus, to surface on the island of Sicily.

They were often the object of archaic local cults, worshipped as essential to humans. Boys and girls at coming-of-age ceremonies dedicated their childish locks to the local naiad of the spring. In places like Lerna their waters’ ritual cleansings were credited with magical medical properties. Animals were ritually drowned there. Oracles might be situated by ancient springs.
Naiads could be dangerous: Hylas of the Argo’s crew was lost when he was taken by naiads fascinated by his beauty (see illustration). The naiads were also known to exhibit jealous tendencies. Theocritus’ story of naiad jealousy was that of a shepherd, Daphnis, who was the lover of Nomia or Echenais; Daphnis had on several occasions been unfaithful to Nomia and as revenge she permanently blinded him. Salmacis forced the youth Hermaphroditus into a carnal embrace and, when he sought to get away, fused with him.
The Naiads were either daughters of Poseidon or various Oceanids, but a genealogy for such ancient, ageless creatures is easily overstated. The water nymph associated with particular springs was known all through Europe in places with no direct connection with Greece, surviving in the Celtic wells of northwest Europe that have been rededicated to Saints, and in the medieval Melusine.

Walter Burkert points out, “When in the Iliad [xx.4–9] Zeus calls the gods into assembly on Mount Olympus, it is not only the well-known Olympians who come along, but also all the nymphs and all the rivers; Okeanos alone remains at his station”, Greek hearers recognized this impossibility as the poet’s hyperbole, which proclaimed the universal power of Zeus over the ancient natural world: “the worship of these deities,” Burkert confirms, “is limited only by the fact that they are inseparably identified with a specific locality.”

Robert Graves offered a sociopolitical reading of the common myth-type in which a mythic king is credited with marrying a naiad and founding a city: it was the newly arrived Hellenes justifying their presence. The loves and rapes of Zeus, according to Graves’ readings, record the supplanting of ancient local cults by Olympian ones (Graves 1955, passim).
So, in the back-story of the myth of Aristaeus, Hypseus, a king of the Lapiths, married Chlidanope, a naiad, who bore him Cyrene. Aristaeus had more than ordinary mortal experience with the naiads: when his bees died in Thessaly, he went to consult them. His aunt Arethusa invited him below the water’s surface, where he was washed with water from a perpetual spring and given advice.

Types :

* CRINAEAE – In Greek mythology, the Crinaeae were a type of Naiad nymphs associated with fountains or wells.
The number of Crinaeae includes but is not limited to :

1 Aganippe ( Aganippe was the name of both a spring and the Naiad (a Crinaea) associated with it. The spring is in Boeotia, near Thespiae, at the base of Mount Helicon, and was associated with the Muses who were sometimes called Aganippides. Drinking from it was considered to be a source of poetic inspiration. The nymph is called a daughter of the river-god Permessus (called Termessus by Pausanias). Ovid associates Aganippe with Hippocrene.

2 Appias ( Traditionally the Appiades are said to be of Concordia, Minerva, Pax, Venus, and Vesta.
In Roman mythology, Appias was one of the Crinaeae, a naiad who lived in the Appian Well outside the temple to Venus Genitrix in the Roman Forum.
In one of his letters, Cicero refers to a statue of Minerva as “Appias”. In this case, he derived this surname from the name of Appius Claudius Pulcher, whom he intended to flatter.)

3 Myrtoessa ( one of the nurses of infant Zeus, dwelled in a well in Arcadia )

4 The Sithnides ( a group of nymphs associated witn a fountain in Megara ).

* ELEIONOMAE – The Eleionomae were marsh naiads in ancient Greek mythology. Aside from living in marshy environments, the Eleionomae often misled travelers with their illusions. The illusions constituted images of a traveler’s loved ones. These nymphs also lured young, virgin boys and seduced them with their beauty.

* LIMNADES or LIMNATIDES – In Greek mythology, the Limnades / Leimenides were a type of Naiad. They lived in freshwater lakes. Their parents were river or lake gods.
The number of Limnades includes but is not limited to :

1 The Astakides ( nymphs of the Lake Astakos in Bithynia )

2 Bolbe ( In Greek mythology, Bolbe was an extremely beautiful lake goddess or nymph who dwelled in a Thessalian lake of the same name (modern Lake Volvi). She was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Like other lake gods and goddesses, Bolbe’s offspring were Limnades who are Nymphs living in fresh water lakes. According to Athenaeus, Bolbe was the mother of Olynthus by Heracles. )

3 Limnaee ( daughter of the Indian river god Ganges, one of the reputed mothers of Athis )

4 Pallas ( In Greek mythology, Pallas was the daughter of Triton. Acting as a foster parent to Zeus’s daughter Athena, Triton raised her alongside his own daughter. During a friendly fight between the two goddesses, Athena was protected from harm by Zeus but Pallas was mortally wounded. Out of sadness and regret, she created the palladium, a statue in the likeness of Pallas. This story inspired a yearly festival in Libya dedicated to Athena. Girls from the Machlyans and Auseans tribes would fight each other, and those who died were labeled false virgins. )

5 Tritonis ( nymph of the homonymous salt-water lake in Libya, mother of Nasamon and Caphaurus (or Cephalion) by Amphithemis, and, according to an archaic version of the myth, also of Athena by Poseidon. )

* PEGAEAE – In Greek mythology, the Pegaeae were a type of naiad that lived in springs. They were often considered daughters of the river gods (Potamoi), thus establishing a mythological relationship between a river itself and its springs.
The number of Pegaeae included but was not limited to :

1 Albunea

The “Tiburtine Sibyl” or Albunea was a Roman sibyl, whose seat was the ancient Etruscan town of Tibur (modern Tivoli).

The mythic meeting of Cæsar Augustus with the Sibyl, of whom he inquired whether he should be worshiped as a god, was a favored motif of Christian artists. Whether the sibyl in question was the Etruscan Sibyl of Tibur or the Greek Sibyl of Cumae is not always clear. The Christian author Lactantius identified the sibyl in question as the Tiburtine sibyl. He gave a circumstantial account of the pagan sibyls that is useful mostly as a guide to their identifications, as seen by 4th century Christians :

” The Tiburtine Sibyl, by name Albunea, is worshiped at Tibur as a goddess, near the banks of the Anio, in which stream her image is said to have been found, holding a book in her hand. Her oracular responses the Senate transferred into the capitol. “

An apocalyptic pseudo-prophecy exists among the Sibylline Oracles, attributed to the Tiburtine Sibyl, written c. 380 AD, but with revisions and interpolations added at later dates. It purports to prophesy the advent in the world’s ninth age of a final Emperor vanquishing the foes of Christianity :

“ Then will arise a king of the Greeks whose name is Constans. He will be king of the Romans and the Greeks. He will be tall of stature, of handsome appearance with shining face, and well put together in all parts of his body… ”

This Emperor’s reign is characterized by great wealth, victory over the foes of Christianity, an end of paganism and the conversion of the Jews. The Emperor having vanquished Gog and Magog :

“ After this he will come to Jerusalem, and having put off the diadem from his head and laid aside the whole imperial garb, he will hand over the empire of the Christians to God the Father and to Jesus Christ his Son. ”

In doing so, he will give way to the Antichrist :

“ At that time the Prince of Iniquity who will be called Antichrist will arise from the tribe of Dan. He will be the Son of Perdition, the head of pride, the master of error, the fullness of malice who will overturn the world and do wonders and great signs through dissimulation. He will delude many by magic art so that fire will seem to come down from heaven. … When the Roman empire shall have ceased,39 then the Antichrist will be openly revealed and will sit in the House of the Lord in Jerusalem. “

The prophecy relates that Antichrist would be opposed by the Two Witnesses from the Book of Revelation, identified with Elijah and Enoch; after having killed the witnesses and started a final persecution of the Christians :

“ the Antichrist will be slain by the power of God through Michael the Archangel on the Mount of Olives. ”

2 Alexirhoe ( daughter of the river god Grenikos )

3 The Anigrides ( daughters of the river god Anigros, were believed to cure skin diseases )

4 Archidemia

5 Arethusa ( Arethusa, means “the waterer”. In Greek mythology, she was a nymph and daughter of Nereus (making her a Nereid), and later became a fountain on the island of Ortygia in Syracuse, Sicily.
The myth of her transformation begins when she came across a clear stream and began bathing, not knowing it was the river god Alpheus. He fell in love during their encounter, but she fled after discovering his presence and intentions, as she wished to remain a chaste attendant of Artemis. After a long chase, she prayed to her goddess to ask for protection. Artemis hid her in a cloud, but Alpheus was persistent. She began to perspire profusely from fear, and soon transformed into a stream. Artemis then broke the ground allowing Arethusa another attempt to flee. Her stream traveled under the earth to the island of Ortygia, but Alpheus flowed through the sea to reach her and mingle with her waters.

During Demeter’s search for her daughter Persephone, Arethusa entreated Demeter to discontinue her punishment of Sicily for her daughter’s disappearance. She told the goddess that while traveling in her stream below the earth, she saw her daughter looking sad as the queen of Hades.

Arethusa occasionally appeared on coins as a young girl with a net in her hair and dolphins around her head. These coins were common around Ortygia, the location in which she ends up after fleeing from Alpheus.
The Roman writer Ovid called Arethusa by the name “Alpheias”, because her stream was believed to have a subterranean communication with the river Alpheius, in Peloponnesus. )

6 Castalia, or Cassotis ( Castalia, in Greek mythology, was a nymph whom Apollo transformed into a fountain at Delphi, at the base of Mount Parnassos, or at Mount Helicon. Castalia could inspire the genius of poetry to those who drank her waters or listened to their quiet sound; the sacred water was also used to clean the Delphian temples. Apollo consecrated Castalia to the Muses (Castaliae Musae). The 20th century German writer Hermann Hesse used Castalia as inspiration for the name of the fictional province in his 1943 magnum opus, The Glass Bead Game. )

7 Comaetho ( A nymph of a spring who incessantly mingles her waters with those of the river god Cydnus, who in one passage of Nonnus’ Dionysiaca is said to be her father, and in another her consort. )

8 The Corycian Nymphs ( Coryceia, Cleodora, Daphnis, Melaina – The Thriae or Thriai were nymphs, three virginal sisters, one of a number of such triads,in Greek mythology. They received names Melaina (“the Black”), Kleodora (“Famed for her Gift”), and Daphnis (“Laurel”); however, in the page in the Corycian nymphs, the third sister is listed as Corycia. They were the three Naiads (nymphs) of the sacred springs of the Corycian Cave of Mount Parnassus in Phocis.
Corycia was the sister whom the Corycian Cave was named after. She was the mother of Lycoreus with Apollo.

Kleodora was loved by Poseidon. With Poseidon (or Kleopompos) she was the mother of Parnassos, who founded the city of Parnassus.
Melaina was loved by Apollo, bearing him Delphos. Another tradition names Thyia as the mother of Delphos. Her name meant “the black,” suggesting she presides over subterranean nymphs. )

9 Cyane ( In Greek mythology, Cyane or Kyane was a nymph who tried to prevent Hades from abducting Persephone, her playmate. Upon failure, she dissolved away in tears and melted into her pool. In a slightly different version, Cyane was the Naiad (i.e. the fresh-water nymph) of a spring in the Sicilian town of Syracuse. After witnessing Hades’s abduction of the goddess Persephone and trying to prevent it, she was turned to liquid by Hades.
Cyane had as a partner the river god Anapos (or Anapis). She cited their love as an example of consensual relationship while trying to convince Hades not to take Persephone by force. )

10 The Cyrtonian nymphs ( local springs in the town of Cyrtones, Boeotia )

11 The Deliades ( daughters of Inopus, god of the river Inopus on the island of Delos )

12 Dirce ( was the wife of Lycus in Greek mythology, and aunt to Antiope whom Zeus impregnated. Antiope fled in shame to King Epopeus of Sicyon, but was brought back by Lycus through force, giving birth to the twins Amphion and Zethus on the way. Dirce hated Antiope and treated her cruelly after Lycus gave Antiope to her; until Antiope, in time, escaped.
In Euripides’ play “Antiope”, Antiope flees back to the cave where Amphion and Zethus were born, now living there as young men. They disbelieve her claim to be their mother and refuse her pleas for sanctuary, but when Dirce comes to find Antiope and orders her to be killed, the twins are convinced by the shepherd who raised them that Antiope is their mother. They kill Dirce by tying her to the horns of a bull.

Dirce was devoted to the god Dionysus. He caused a spring to flow where she died, either at Mount Cithaeron or at Thebes, and it was a local tradition for the outgoing Theban hipparch to swear in his successor at her tomb. )

13 Gargaphie, or Plataia ( one of the daughters of the river god Asopus )

14 Hagno ( one of the nurses of infant Zeus )

15 The Himerian Naiads

16 The Inachides ( daughters of the river god Inachus, namely Io, Amymone, Philodice, Messeis and Hyperia )

17 The Ionides ( In Greek mythology, the Ionides were a sisterhood of water nymphs. Their individual names were Calliphaea, Synallasis (or Synallaxis), Pegaea and Iasis.
The Ionides dwelt at Elis, where they had a sanctuary near a spring flowing into River Cytherus, and were said to have the power to cure all kinds of disease. Their surname was thought to have come from the name of Ion, son of Gargettus.)

18 Ismene ( was a daughter of the river-god Asopus by Metope. The blue berries, near Thebes, was named for her, or for her brother )

19 The Ithacian nymphs ( dwelled in sacred caves on Ithaca )

20 Langia

21 The Leibethrides ( individual names include Libethrias and Petra )

22 Magea

23 Milichie

24 Metope ( In Greek mythology, Metope was a river nymph, the daughter of the river Ladon. Her waters were near the town of Stymphalus in the Peloponnesus. She married the river god Asopus by whom she had several (either 12 or 20) daughters, including Aegina, Salamis, Sinope, Euboea, Tanagra, Thespia, Thebe, Corcyra, Ismene, and Harpina; and possibly sons, including Pelagon and Ismenus. The question of the exact parentage of these children of Asopus is very vague.

She may or may not be identical to Metope, consort of the river god Sangarius. Some say these were the possible parents of Hecuba.

Metope is also the name of the daughter of King Echetus. )

25 The Mysian Naiads ( Euneica, Malis and Nycheia, who dwelled in the spring of Pegae near the lake Askanios in Bithynia and were responsible for the kidnapping of Hylas )

26 The Ortygian nymphs ( local springs of Syracuse, Sicily )

27 Pegasis ( daughter of the river god Grenikos )

28 Pirene ( In Greek mythology, Pirene or Peirene, a nymph, was either the daughter of the river god Asopus, Laconian king Oebalus, or the River God Achelous, depending on different sources. By Poseidon she became the mother of Lecheas and Cenchrias. When Cenchrias was unintentionally killed by Artemis, Pirene’s grief was so profound that she became nothing but tears and turned into the fountain outside the gates of Corinth. The Corinthians had a small sanctuary dedicated to Pirene by the fountain where honey-cakes were offered to her to during the dry months of early summer.

The fountain was sacred to the Muses and it was there that Bellerophon found Pegasus (as Polyidus had claimed), drinking, and tamed him. )

29 Pharmaceia ( nymph of a poisonous spring in Attika and Orithyia’s playmate

30 Psanis ( a local spring in Arcadia )

31 The Rhyndacides ( daughters of the river god Rhyndacus )

32 Salmacis ( In Greek mythology, Salmacis was an atypical naiad who rejected the ways of the virginal Greek goddess Artemis in favour of vanity and idleness. Her attempted rape of Hermaphroditus places her as the only nymph rapist in the Greek mythological canon (though see also Dercetis).

“There dwelt a Nymph, not up for hunting or archery:
unfit for footraces. She the only Naiad not in Diana’s band.
Often her sisters would say: “Pick up a javelin, or
bristling quiver, and interrupt your leisure for the chase!”
But she would not pick up a javelin or arrows,
nor trade leisure for the chase.
Instead she would bathe her beautiful limbs and tend to her hair,
with her waters as a mirror.”

Ovid, Metamorphoses. Book IV, 306-312.

In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, she becomes one with Hermaphroditus, and Hermaphroditus curses the fountain to have the same effect on others. However, it’s very likely that Ovid fabricated the entire tale himself – his use of “praetereo, dulcique animos novitate tenebo” could be read in several ways, as “novitate” could be translated as either something strange or something new, which would imply that it was a new tale. Salmacis could also have been intended simply as a contrast to the previous tales in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, as others involve a dominant male pursuing an elusive female.

Salmacis fountain is located near the ancient Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, and it is now a tourist attraction located in present-day Bodrum, Turkey. The waters of Salmacis fountain were said to have relaxing properties. Although excellent to drink, in classical times, it was thought to have the effect of making men effeminate and soft. Ovid creates or recounts the myth of how the fountain came to be so in the story of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis. The following passage by Vitruvius gives a different story :

“ There is a mistaken idea that this spring infects those who drink of it with an unnatural lewdness. It will not be out of place to explain how this idea came to spread throughout the world from a mistake in the telling of the tale. It cannot be that the water makes men effeminate and unchaste, as it is said to do; for the spring is of remarkable clearness and excellent in flavour. The fact is that when Melas and Arevanias came there from Argos and Troezen and founded a colony together, they drove out the Carians and Lelegans who were barbarians. These took refuge in the mountains, and, uniting there, used to make raids, plundering the Greeks and laying their country waste in a cruel manner. Later, one of the colonists, to make money, set up a well-stocked shop, near the spring because the water was so good, and the way in which he carried it on attracted the barbarians. So they began to come down, one at a time, and to meet with society, and thus they were brought back of their own accord, giving up their rough and savage ways for the delights of Greek customs. Hence this water acquired its peculiar reputation, not because it really induced unchastity, but because those barbarians were softened by the charm of civilization. ”

In 1995, The Salmakis Inscription was discovered by Turkish authorities. A partially damaged but mainly well preserved inscription cut into an ancient wall. It was a poem in elegiac verse. The first lines form the poet’s invocation of the goddess Aphrodite. Early in Aphrodite’s story we encounter her son Hermaphroditus, as well as the water nymph Salmacis. The inscription was written sometime during the Hellenistic period. )

33 The Spercheides ( daughters of the river god Spercheus )

34 Strophia ( a spring on Mount Cithaeron near Thebes; barely personified )

35 Thelpusa ( Thelpusa or Telphousa was an ancient city-state in western Arcadia. The city was built on the left bank of the river Ladon. Its territory was bounded on the north by Psophis and on the east by Kleitor. The name comes from the nymph Thelpusa, daughter of Ladon. The city had a temple of Asclepius and a sanctuary of the twelve gods of the Olympus. Near Thelpusa there was a temple of Eleusinian Demeter, with a stone statue of the goddess, her daughter and Dionysus. When Pausanias visited Thelpusa it was abandoned and ruined for many years. In 352 BC, the town was first mentioned as the place of the defeat of the Lacedaemonians by the Spartans. It was a member of the Achaean League. Its ruins have been found near the village Vanaina, near Tropaia. )

36 Temenitis.

* POTAMEIDES – Potamides, also called “potameides” , were a type of water nymphs of Greco-Roman mythology. They were assigned as a class of nymphs of fresh water known as naiads, and as such belonged to a category that presided over rivers and streams.

Potamides were identified by the names associated with the rivers of their origin such as the Anigrides, Ismenides, Amnisiades, the Pactolides from the Pactolus river, and the Acheloides from the Achelous river. However they had their individual names and also sometimes could be distinguished by the name of the country in which they inhabited.
The rivers were the domains of potamides as well as of the nymphs Fluviales. Every creek had its potamide, who as local divinities, and like all the naiads, were daughters of the gods of rivers, also called Potamoi deities. Even the rivers of the marshy regions are described as having their nymphs; hence no exception it was made to the waters of Greek underworld ruled by god Hades, as was quoted in Latin: “Nymphae infernae paludis and Avernales”, which means “swampy Avernales, the infernal nymphs”. And many of these hellish potamides, the Avernales, were believed to be owners of prophetic ability, and to express that gift to their chosen men.

Like any nymph, potamides were considered subject to mortality but with a long life. For the Greek historian Plutarch their term of life reached about 9720 years, and according to Greek poet Hesiod there were about three thousand nymphs wandering on the world, and their lives lasted several thousand years.
Potamides showed themselves very favorably inclined to young girls, and gently removed the freckles from all who bathed in their streams. On the other hand they had an aggressive behavior directed at young men coming near their watery territories, whom they dragged down to their abodes. It was believed by the ancients that they carried water for their river parents, as was quoted: “In the lonely hour of noon the naiads sat with their water-pitcher at the spring-sending forth from it the warbling brook.”

Regarded as a profuse class of minor female divinities, they were believed to inspire those that drank of their waters. Thus potamides, and nymphs in general, were conceived to be endowed with oracular power, to inspire men with the same prophetic gift, and to bestow upon them the natural talent of poetry. Hence, as water is a necessity to all the creation, the water nymphs, along with the gods Dionysus and Demeter, were also worshipped as providing life and blessings to all existing beings, and this attribute is manifested by a diversity of epithets.

Accordingly, in many parts of Greece, offerings of honey, oil, milk, but never of wine, and sometimes sacrifices of a lamb or goat were presented to these divinities. In Sicily was commemorated an annual celebration in their honor. Although they had no temples, the most beautiful spots in forests, gardens and so forth, were regarded as the favorite places of nymphs and invisible spirits, and thus esteemed with special veneration.

SIREN

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous and beautiful creatures, portrayed as femme fatales who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on some small islands called Sirenum scopuli. In some later, rationalized traditions, the literal geography of the “flowery” island of Anthemoessa, or Anthemusa, is fixed: sometimes on Cape Pelorum and at others in the islands known as the Sirenuse, near Paestum, or in Capreae. All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks.
When the Sirens were given a name of their own they were considered the daughters of the river god Achelous, fathered upon Terpsichore, Melpomene, Sterope, or Chthon (the Earth; in Euripides’ Helen 167, Helen in her anguish calls upon “Winged maidens, daughters of the Earth”). Although they lured mariners, for the Greeks the Sirens in their “meadow starred with flowers” were not sea deities. Roman writers linked the Sirens more closely to the sea, as daughters of Phorcys. Sirens are found in many Greek stories, particularly in Homer’s Odyssey.

Their number is variously reported as between two and five. In the Odyssey, Homer says nothing of their origin or names, but gives the number of the Sirens as two. Later writers mention both their names and number: some state that there were three, Peisinoe, Aglaope, and Thelxiepeia (Tzetzes, ad Lycophron 7l2) or Parthenope, Ligeia, and Leucosia (Eustathius, loc. cit.; Strabo v. §246, 252; Servius’ commentary on Virgil’s Georgics iv. 562); Eustathius (Commentaries §1709) states that they were two, Aglaopheme and Thelxiepeia. Their individual names are variously rendered in the later sources as Thelxiepeia/Thelxiope/Thelxinoe, Molpe, Himerope, Aglaophonos/Aglaope/Aglaopheme, Pisinoe/Peisinoë/Peisithoe, Parthenope, Ligeia, Leucosia, Raidne, and Teles.

According to Ovid (Metamorphoses V, 551), the Sirens were the companions of young Persephone and were given wings by Demeter to search for Persephone when she was abducted. However, the Fabulae of Hyginus has Demeter cursing the Sirens for failing to intervene in the abduction of Persephone.

The Sirens might be called the Muses of the lower world, Walter Copland Perry observed: “Their song, though irresistibly sweet, was no less sad than sweet, and lapped both body and soul in a fatal lethargy, the forerunner of death and corruption.” Their song is continually calling on Persephone. The term “siren song” refers to an appeal that is hard to resist but that, if heeded, will lead to a bad conclusion. Later writers have inferred that the Sirens were anthropophagous, based on Circe’s description of them “lolling there in their meadow, round them heaps of corpses rotting away, rags of skin shriveling on their bones.” As Jane Ellen Harrison notes of “The Ker as siren:” “It is strange and beautiful that Homer should make the Sirens appeal to the spirit, not to the flesh.” For the matter of the siren song is a promise to Odysseus of mantic truths; with a false promise that he will live to tell them, they sing :

” Once he hears to his heart’s content, sails on, a wiser man.
We know all the pains that the Greeks and Trojans once endured
on the spreading plain of Troy when the gods willed it so—
all that comes to pass on the fertile earth, we know it all! “

“They are mantic creatures like the Sphinx with whom they have much in common, knowing both the past and the future,” Harrison observed. “Their song takes effect at midday, in a windless calm. The end of that song is death.” That the sailors’ flesh is rotting away, though, would suggest it has not been eaten. It has been suggested that, with their feathers stolen, their divine nature kept them alive, but unable to feed for their visitors, who starved to death by refusing to leave.
According to Hyginus, sirens were fated to live only until the mortals who heard their songs were able to pass by them.

Sirens combine women and birds in various ways. In early Greek art Sirens were represented as birds with large women’s heads, bird feathers and scaly feet. Later, they were represented as female figures with the legs of birds, with or without wings, playing a variety of musical instruments, especially harps. The tenth century Byzantine encyclopedia Suda says that from their chests up Sirens had the form of sparrows, below they were women, or, alternatively, that they were little birds with women’s faces. Birds were chosen because of their beautiful voices. Later Sirens were sometimes depicted as beautiful women, whose bodies, not only their voices, are seductive.

The first century Roman historian Pliny the Elder discounted Sirens as pure fable, “although Dinon, the father of Clearchus, a celebrated writer, asserts that they exist in India, and that they charm men by their song, and, having first lulled them to sleep, tear them to pieces.” In his notebooks Leonardo da Vinci wrote of the Siren, “The siren sings so sweetly that she lulls the mariners to sleep; then she climbs upon the ships and kills the sleeping mariners.”
In 1917, Franz Kafka wrote in The Silence of the Sirens, “Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence. And though admittedly such a thing never happened, it is still conceivable that someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence certainly never.”

The so-called “Siren of Canosa” accompanied the deceased among grave goods in a burial and seems to have some psychopomp characteristics, guiding the dead on the after-life journey. The cast terracotta figure bears traces of its original white pigment. The woman bears the feet and the wings and tail of a bird. It is conserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain, in Madrid.

*** In Argonautica (4.891–919), Jason had been warned by Chiron that Orpheus would be necessary in his journey. When Orpheus heard their voices, he drew out his lyre and played his music more beautifully than they, drowning out their voices. One of the crew, however, the sharp-eared hero Butes, heard the song and leapt into the sea, but he was caught up and carried safely away by the goddess Aphrodite.

Odysseus was curious as to what the Sirens sang to him, so, on Circe’s advice, he had all of his sailors plug their ears with beeswax and tie him to the mast. He ordered his men to leave him tied tightly to the mast, no matter how much he would beg. When he heard their beautiful song, he ordered the sailors to untie him but they bound him tighter. When they had passed out of earshot, Odysseus demonstrated with his frowns to be released.
Some post-Homeric authors state that the Sirens were fated to die if someone heard their singing and escaped them, and that after Odysseus passed by they therefore flung themselves into the water and perished. It is also said that Hera, queen of the gods, persuaded the Sirens to enter a singing contest with the Muses. The Muses won the competition and then plucked out all of the Sirens’ feathers and made crowns out of them. Out of their anguish from losing the competition, writes Stephanus of Byzantium, the Sirens turned white and fell into the sea at Aptera (“featherless”), where they formed the islands in the bay that were called Souda (modern Lefkai).

** By the fourth century, when pagan beliefs were overcome by Christianity, belief in literal sirens was discouraged. Although Jerome, who produced the Latin Vulgate version of the Scriptures, used the word “sirens” to translate Hebrew tenim (jackals) in Isaiah 13:22, and also to translate a word for “owls” in Jeremiah 50:39, this was explained by Ambrose to be a mere symbol or allegory for worldly temptations, and not an endorsement of the Greek myth.
Sirens continued to be used as a symbol for the dangerous temptation embodied by women regularly throughout Christian art of the medieval era; however, in the 17th century, some Jesuit writers began to assert their actual existence, including Cornelius a Lapide, who said of Woman, “her glance is that of the fabled basilisk, her voice a siren’s voice—with her voice she enchants, with her beauty she deprives of reason—voice and sight alike deal destruction and death.” Antonio de Lorea also argued for their existence, and Athanasius Kircher argued that compartments must have been built for them aboard Noah’s Ark.

The Early Christian euhemerist interpretation of mythologized human beings received a long-lasting boost from Isidore’s Etymologiae. “They [the Greeks] imagine that ‘there were three Sirens, part virgins, part birds,’ with wings and claws. ‘One of them sang, another played the flute, the third the lyre. They drew sailors, decoyed by song, to shipwreck. According to the truth, however, they were prostitutes who led travelers down to poverty and were said to impose shipwreck on them.’ They had wings and claws because Love flies and wounds. They are said to have stayed in the waves because a wave created Venus.”

Charles Burney expounded c. 1789, in A General History of Music: “The name, according to Bochart, who derives it from the Phoenician, implies a songstress. Hence it is probable, that in ancient times there may have been excellent singers, but of corrupt morals, on the coast of Sicily, who by seducing voyagers, gave rise to this fable.” John Lemprière in his Classical Dictionary (1827) wrote, “Some suppose that the Sirens were a number of lascivious women in Sicily, who prostituted themselves to strangers, and made them forget their pursuits while drowned in unlawful pleasures. The etymology of Bochart, who deduces the name from a Phoenician term denoting a songstress, favours the explanation given of the fable by Damm. This distinguished critic makes the Sirens to have been excellent singers, and divesting the fables respecting them of all their terrific features, he supposes that by the charms of music and song they detained travellers, and made them altogether forgetful of their native land.”
Such euhemerist interpretations have been abandoned since the later 19th century, in favour of analyses of Greek mythology in terms of historical Greek social structure and their cultural system, and the Greek taxonomy of the spiritual world.

UNDINE

Undines also called “ondines”, are elementals, enumerated as the water elementals in works of alchemy by Paracelsus. They also appear in European folklore as fairy-like creatures; the name may be used interchangeably with those of other water spirits. Undines are said to be able to gain a soul by marrying a man and bearing his child. The German folktale of Ondine, a water nymph who curses her unfaithful husband to cease breathing if he should ever fall asleep again, is the basis for “Ondine’s Curse,” the historical term for congenital central hypoventilation syndrome, in which the afflicted lose autonomic control over breathing, placing them at greatest risk when they are asleep.

According to a theory advanced by Paracelsus, an Undine is a water nymph or water spirit, the elemental of water. They are usually found in forest pools and waterfalls. They have beautiful voices, which are sometimes heard over the sound of water. According to some legends, Undines cannot get a soul unless they marry a man and bear him a child. This aspect has led them to be a popular motif in romantic and tragic literature.
In 18th-century Scotland, Undines were also referred to as the wraiths of water. Even then, they were not feared as other wraiths such as the kelpie.

* In a German tale known as Sleep of Ondine, Ondine is a water nymph. She was very beautiful and, like all nymphs, immortal. However, should she fall in love with a mortal man and bear his child, she would lose her immortality.

” Ondine eventually falls in love with a handsome knight, Sir Lawrence, and they are married. When they exchange vows, Lawrence vows to forever love and be faithful to her. A year after their marriage, Ondine gives birth to his child. From that moment on she begins to age. As Ondine’s physical attractiveness diminishes, Lawrence loses interest in his wife.
One afternoon, Ondine is walking near the stables when she hears the familiar snoring of her husband. When she enters the stable, she sees Lawrence lying in the arms of another woman. Ondine points her finger at him, which he feels as if kicked, waking him up with surprise. Ondine curses him, stating, “You swore faithfulness to me with every waking breath, and I accepted your oath. So be it. As long as you are awake, you shall have your breath, but should you ever fall asleep, then that breath will be taken from you and you will die! ”

Ondine’s Curse

* The tale is the basis for “Ondine’s Curse,” the historical name for Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS), a severe form of sleep apnea. CCHS causes patients to lose autonomic control of breathing, resulting in the need to consciously initiate every breath. If untreated, patients with CCHS will die—like Ondine’s unfaithful spouse—if they fall asleep and can therefore no longer consciously breathe.

NEREID

In Greek mythology, the Nereids are sea nymphs (female spirits of sea waters), the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris, sisters to Nerites. They were distinct from the mermaid-like Sirens. They often accompany Poseidon and can be friendly and helpful to sailors fighting perilous storms.

Nereids are particularly associated with the Aegean Sea, where they dwelt with their father in the depths within a silvery cave. The most notable of them are Thetis, wife of Peleus and mother of Achilles; Amphitrite, wife of Poseidon; and Galatea, love of the Cyclops Polyphemus. In Iliad XVIII, when Thetis cries out in sympathy for the grief of Achilles for the slain Patroclus, her sisters appear.
The Nereids are the namesake of one of the moons of the planet Neptune.

The nymph Opis is mentioned in Virgil’s Aeneid. She is called on by the goddess Diana to avenge the death of the Amazon-like female warrior Camilla. Diana gives Opis magical weapons with which to take revenge on Camilla’s killer, the Etruscan Arruns. Opis sees and laments Camilla’s death and shoots Arruns in revenge as directed by Diana.
In modern Greek folklore, the term “nereid” has come to be used of all nymphs, or fairies, or mermaids, not merely nymphs of the sea.

Names :

Actaea
Agaue
Amatheia
Amphinome
Amphithoe
Amphitrite
Apseudes
Arethusa
Asia
Autonoe
Beroe
Callianassa
Callianeira
Calypso
Ceto
Clio
Clymene
Cranto
Creneis
Cydippe
Cymo
Cymatolege
Cymodoce
Cymothoe
Deiopea
Dero
Dexamene
Dione
Doris
Doto
Drymo
Dynamene
Eione
Ephyra
Erato
Euagore
Euarne
Eucrante
Eudore
Eulimene
Eumolpe
Eunice
Eupompe
Eurydice
Galene
Galatea
Glauce
Glauconome
Halie
Halimede
Hipponoe
Hippothoe
Iaera
Ianassa
Ianeira
Ione
Iphianassa
Laomedeia
Leiagore
Leucothoe
Ligea
Limnoreia
Lycorias
Lysianassa
Maera
Melite
Menippe
Nausithoe
Neaera
Nemertes
Neomeris
Nesaea
Neso
Opis
Oreithyia
Panopea
Panope
Pasithea
Pherusa
Phyllodoce
Plexaure
Ploto
Polynome
Pontomedusa
Pontoporeia
Poulunoe
Pronoe
Proto
Protomedeia
Psamathe
Sao
Speio
Thaleia
Themisto
Thetis
Thoe
Xantho

Mermaid

A mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, Africa and Asia. The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transformed herself into a mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks and drownings. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same tradition), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.
Mermaids are associated with the mythological Greek sirens as well as with sirenia, a biological order comprising dugongs and manatees. Some of the historical sightings by sailors may have been misunderstood encounters with these aquatic mammals. Christopher Columbus reported seeing mermaids while exploring the Caribbean, and sightings have been reported in the 20th and 21st centuries in Canada, Israel and Zimbabwe. The U.S. National Ocean Service stated in 2012 that no evidence of mermaids has ever been found.

Mermaids have been a popular subject of art and literature in recent centuries, such as in Hans Christian Andersen’s well-known fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” (1836). They have subsequently been depicted in operas, paintings, books, films and comics.

* The word mermaid is a compound of the Old English mere (sea), and maid (a girl or young woman). The equivalent term in Old English was merewif. They are conventionally depicted as beautiful with long flowing hair. As cited above, they are sometimes equated with the sirens of Greek mythology (especially the Odyssey), half-bird femme fatales whose enchanting voices would lure soon-to-be-shipwrecked sailors to nearby rocks, sandbars or shoals.

Sirenia

Sirenia is an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit rivers, estuaries, coastal marine waters, swamps and marine wetlands. Sirenians, including manatees and dugongs, possess major aquatic adaptations: arms used for steering, a paddle used for propulsion, and remnants of hind limbs (legs) in the form of two small bones floating deep in the muscle. They look ponderous and clumsy but are actually fusiform, hydrodynamic and highly muscular, and mariners before the mid-nineteenth century referred to them as mermaids.

Sirenomelia

Sirenomelia, also called “mermaid syndrome”, is a rare congenital disorder in which a child is born with his or her legs fused together and small genitalia. This condition is about as rare as conjoined twins, affecting one out of every 100,000 live births and is usually fatal within a day or two of birth because of kidney and bladder complications. Four survivors were known as of July 2003.

** The first known mermaid stories appeared in Assyria c. 1000 BC. The goddess Atargatis, mother of Assyrian queen Semiramis, loved a mortal (a shepherd) and unintentionally killed him. Ashamed, she jumped into a lake and took the form of a fish, but the waters would not conceal her divine beauty. Thereafter, she took the form of a mermaid — human above the waist, fish below — although the earliest representations of Atargatis showed her as a fish with a human head and arm, similar to the Babylonian god Ea. The Greeks recognized Atargatis under the name Derketo. Sometime before 546 BC, Milesian philosopher Anaximander postulated that mankind had sprung from an aquatic animal species. He thought that humans, who begin life with prolonged infancy, could not have survived otherwise.

A popular Greek legend turned Alexander the Great’s sister, Thessalonike, into a mermaid after her death, living in the Aegean. She would ask the sailors on any ship she would encounter only one question: “Is King Alexander alive?”, to which the correct answer was: “He lives and reigns and conquers the world”. This answer would please her, and she would accordingly calm the waters and bid the ship farewell. Any other answer would enrage her, and she would stir up a terrible storm, dooming the ship and every sailor on board.

Lucian of Samosata in Syria (2nd century A.D.), in De Dea Syria (About the Syrian Goddess) wrote of the Syrian temples he had visited :

“Among them – Now that is the traditional story among them concerning the temple. But other men swear that Semiramis of Babylonia, whose deeds are many in Asia, also founded this site, and not for Hera Atargatis but for her own mother, whose name was Derketo.”
“I saw Derketo’s likeness in Phoenicia, a strange marvel. It is woman for half its length; but the other half, from thighs to feet, stretched out in a fish’s tail. But the image in the Holy City is entirely a woman, and the grounds for their account are not very clear. They consider fish to be sacred, and they never eat them; and though they eat all other fowls they do not eat the dove, for they believe it is holy. And these things are done, they believe, because of Derketo and Semiramis, the first because Derketo has the shape of a fish, and the other because ultimately Semiramis turned into a dove. Well, I may grant that the temple was a work of Semiramis perhaps; but that it belongs to Derketo I do not believe in any way. For among the Egyptians some people do not eat fish, and that is not done to honor Derketo.”

** The One Thousand and One Nights collection includes several tales featuring “sea people”, such as “Djullanar the Sea-girl”. Unlike depictions of mermaids in other mythologies, these are anatomically identical to land-bound humans, differing only in their ability to breathe and live underwater. They can (and do) interbreed with land humans, and the children of such unions have the ability to live underwater. In the tale “Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman”, the protagonist Abdullah the Fisherman gains the ability to breathe underwater and discovers an underwater society that is portrayed as an inverted reflection of society on land. The underwater society follows a form of primitive communism where concepts like money and clothing do not exist. In “The Adventures of Bulukiya”, the protagonist Bulukiya’s quest for the herb of immortality leads him to explore the seas, where he encounters societies of mermaids.

** The Norman chapel in Durham Castle, built around 1078 by Saxon stonemasons, has what is probably the earliest artistic depiction of a mermaid in England. It can be seen on a south-facing capital above one of the original Norman stone pillars.

Mermaids appear in British folklore as unlucky omens, both foretelling disaster and provoking it. Several variants of the ballad Sir Patrick Spens depict a mermaid speaking to the doomed ships. In some versions, she tells them they will never see land again; in others, she claims they are near shore, which they are wise enough to know means the same thing. Mermaids can also be a sign of approaching rough weather, and some have been described as monstrous in size, up to 2,000 feet (610 m).
Mermaids have also been described as able to swim up rivers to freshwater lakes. In one story, the Laird of Lorntie went to aid a woman he thought was drowning in a lake near his house; a servant of his pulled him back, warning that it was a mermaid, and the mermaid screamed at them that she would have killed him if it were not for his servant. But mermaids could occasionally be more beneficent; e.g., teaching humans cures for certain diseases. Mermen have been described as wilder and uglier than mermaids, with little interest in humans.

According to legend, a mermaid came to the Cornish village of Zennor where she used to listen to the singing of a chorister, Matthew Trewhella. The two fell in love, and Matthew went with the mermaid to her home at Pendour Cove. On summer nights, the lovers can be heard singing together. At the Church of Saint Senara in Zennor, there is a famous chair decorated by a mermaid carving which is probably six hundred years old.
Some tales raised the question of whether mermaids had immortal souls, answering in the negative. The figure of Lí Ban appears as a sanctified mermaid, but she was a human being transformed into a mermaid. After three centuries, when Christianity had come to Ireland, she was baptized. In Scottish mythology, there is a mermaid called the ceasg or “maid of the wave”,as well as the Merrow of Ireland and Scotland.
Mermaids from the Isle of Man, known as ben-varrey, are considered more favorable toward humans than those of other regions, with various accounts of assistance, gifts and rewards. One story tells of a fisherman who carried a stranded mermaid back into the sea and was rewarded with the location of treasure. Another recounts the tale of a baby mermaid who stole a doll from a human little girl, but was rebuked by her mother and sent back to the girl with a gift of a pearl necklace to atone for the theft. A third story tells of a fishing family that made regular gifts of apples to a mermaid and was rewarded with prosperity.

** A freshwater mermaid-like creature from European folklore is Melusine. She is sometimes depicted with two fish tails, or with the lower body of a serpent.

Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” was published in 1837. The story was adapted into a Disney film with a bowdlerized plot. In the original version, The Little Mermaid is the youngest daughter of a sea king who lives at the bottom of the sea. To pursue a prince with whom she has fallen in love, the mermaid gets a sea witch to give her legs and agrees to give up her tongue in return. Though she is found on the beach by the prince, he marries another. Told she must stab the prince in the heart to return to her sisters, she can’t do it out of love for him. She then rises from the ocean and sees ethereal beings around her who explain that mermaids who do good deeds become daughters of the air, and after 300 years of good service they can earn a human soul.
A world-famous statue of the Little Mermaid, based on Andersen’s fairy tale, has been in Copenhagen, Denmark since August 1913, with copies in 13 other locations around the world – almost half of them in North America.

** Rusalkas are the Slavic counterpart of the Greek sirens and naiads. Although the Russian word rusalka is commonly translated as mermaid, they lack a fishlike tail. The nature of rusalkas varies among folk traditions, but according to ethnologist D.K. Zelenin they all share a common element: they are the restless spirits of the unclean dead. They are usually the ghosts of young women who died a violent or untimely death, perhaps by murder or suicide, and especially by drowning. Rusalkas are said to inhabit lakes and rivers. They appear as beautiful young women with long green hair and pale skin, suggesting a connection with floating weeds and days spent underwater in faint sunlight. They can be seen after dark, dancing together under the moon and calling out to young men by name, luring them to the water and drowning them. The characterization of rusalkas as both desirable and treacherous is prevalent in southern Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus, and was emphasized by 19th-century Russian authors. The best-known of the great Czech nationalist composer Antonin Dvorak”s operas is Rusalka.

In “Sadko”, a Russian medieval epic, the title character—an adventurer, merchant and gusli musician from Novgorod—lives for some time in the underwater court of the “Sea Tsar” and marries his daughter before finally returning home. The tale inspired such works as the poem “Sadko” by Alexei Tolstoy (1817–1875), the opera Sadko composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and the painting by Ilya Repin.

** A 15th-century compilation of quotations from Chinese literature tells of a mermaid who “wept tears which became pearls”. An early 19th-century book entitled Jottings on the South of China contains two stories about mermaids. In the first, a man captures a mermaid on the shore of Namtao island. She looks human in every respect except that her body is covered with fine hair of many colors. She can’t talk, but he takes her home and marries her. After his death, the mermaid returns to the sea where she was found. In the second story, a man sees a woman lying on the beach while his ship was anchored offshore. On closer inspection, her feet and hands appear to be webbed. She is carried to the water, and expresses her gratitude toward the sailors before swimming away.

** Suvannamaccha (lit. golden mermaid) is a daughter of Ravana that appears in the Cambodian and Thai versions of the Ramayana. She is a mermaid princess who tries to spoil Hanuman’s plans to build a bridge to Lanka but falls in love with him instead. She is a popular figure of Thai folklore.

** Mami Wata are water spirits venerated in west, central and southern Africa, and in the African diaspora in the Caribbean and parts of North and South America. They are usually female, but are sometimes male. The Persian word “maneli” means both “mermaid” and “stay with me”.

** The Neo-Taíno nations of the Caribbean identify a mermaid called Aycayia with attributes of the goddess Jagua and the hibiscus flower of the majagua tree Hibiscus tiliaceus. In modern Caribbean culture, there is a mermaid recognized as a Haitian vodou loa called La Sirene (lit. “the mermaid”), representing wealth, beauty and the orisha Yemaya.

Examples from other cultures are the jengu of Cameroon, the iara of Brazil and the Greek oceanids, nereids and naiads. The ningyo is a fishlike creature from Japanese folklore, and consuming its flesh bestows amazing longevity. Mermaids and mermen are also characters of Philippine folklore, where they are locally known as sirena and siyokoy respectively. The Javanese people believe that the southern beach in Java is a home of Javanese mermaid queen Nyi Roro Kidul.

Reported sightings

– In 1493, sailing off the coast of Hispaniola, Columbus reported seeing three “female forms” which “rose high out of the sea, but were not as beautiful as they are represented”. The logbook of Blackbeard, an English pirate, records that he instructed his crew on several voyages to steer away from charted waters which he called “enchanted” for fear of merfolk or mermaids, which Blackbeard himself and members of his crew reported seeing. These sighting were often recounted and shared by sailors and pirates who believed that mermaids brought bad luck and would bewitch them into giving up their gold and dragging them to the bottom of the sea. Two sightings were reported in Canada near Vancouver and Victoria, one from sometime between 1870 and 1890, the other from 1967.

– During World War II in 1943, Japanese soldiers saw several mermaids on the shores of the Kei Islands. They reported seeing creatures swimming in the water — and one on a beach — with pink skin and spikes along their heads, estimated to be about 150 centimeters tall, with limbs and faces similar to that of a human but a mouth like a carp. The locals called them Orang Ikan, or “fish man” in Malay. Several of these sightings occurred and were reported to Sgt. Taro Horiba, who asked the locals about it and learned that they sometimes got caught in their fishing nets. The locals promised to send word to the sergeant the next time one was caught. One was eventually found dead on the shore, and he was allowed to examine it. This convinced him; he returned to Japan and tried to convince scientists to go and study them, but was never believed.

– In August 2009, after dozens of people reported seeing a mermaid leaping out of the water and doing aerial tricks, the Israeli coastal town of Kiryat Yam offered a $1 million award for proof of its existence. In February 2012, work on two reservoirs near Gokwe and Mutare in Zimbabwe stopped when workers refused to continue, stating that mermaids had hounded them away from the sites. It was reported by Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, the water resources minister.

Animal Planet broadcasts and Hoaxes

*** In May 2012, a Mermaids: The Body Found, a television docufiction aired on Animal Planet which centered around the experiences of former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists, showing a CGI recreation of amateur sound and video of a beached mermaid and discussing scientific theories involving the existence of mermaids. In July 2012 in response to public inquiries, the National Ocean Service (a branch of NOAA) stated that “no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found”.
A year later in May 2013, Animal Planet aired another docufiction titled Mermaids: The New Evidence featuring “previously unreleased video evidence”, including what a former Iceland GeoSurvey scientist witnessed while diving off the coast of Greenland in an underwater submersible. The videos provide two different shots of what appears to be a humanoid creature approaching and touching their vehicle.

– In the middle of the 17th century, John Tradescant the elder created a wunderkammer (called Tradescant’s Ark) in which he displayed, among other things, a “mermaid’s hand”. In the 19th century, P. T. Barnum displayed a taxidermal hoax called the Fiji mermaid in his museum. Others have perpetrated similar hoaxes, which are usually papier-mâché fabrications or parts of deceased creatures, usually monkeys and fish, stitched together for the appearance of a grotesque mermaid. In the wake of the 2004 tsunami, pictures of Fiji “mermaids” circulated on the Internet as supposed examples of items that had washed up amid the devastation, though they were no more real than Barnum’s exhibit.

Rusalka

In Slavic mythology, a rusalka (plural: rusalki or rusalky) is a female ghost, water nymph, succubus, or mermaid-like demon that dwelt in a waterway.
According to most traditions, the rusalki were fish-women, who lived at the bottom of rivers. In the middle of the night, they would walk out to the bank and dance in meadows. If they saw handsome men, they would fascinate them with songs and dancing, mesmerize them, then lead them away to the river floor to their death.

* In most versions, the rusalka is an unquiet dead being, associated with the “unclean force”. According to Zelenin, people who die violently and before their time, such as young women who commit suicide because they have been jilted by their lovers, or unmarried women who are pregnant, must live out their designated time on earth as a spirit.
The ghostly version is the soul of a young woman who had died in or near a river or a lake and came back to haunt that waterway. This undead rusalka is not invariably malevolent, and will be allowed to die in peace if her death is avenged.
Rusalki can also come from unbaptized children, often those who were born out of wedlock and drowned by their mothers for that reason. Baby rusalki supposedly wander the forest begging to be baptised so that they can have peace. They are not necessarily innocent, however, and can attack a human foolish enough to approach them.

** While her primary dwelling place was the body of water in which she died, the rusalka could come out of the water at night, climb a tree, and sit there singing songs, sit on a dock and comb her hair, or join other rusalki in circle dances (Polish: korowody) in the field.
Though in some versions of the myth, their eyes shine like green fire, others describe them with extremely pale and translucent skin, and no visible pupils. Her hair is sometimes depicted as green or golden, and often perpetually wet. The Rusalka could not live long on dry land, but with her comb she was always safe, for it gave her the power to conjure water when she needed it. According to some legends, should the rusalka’s hair dry out, she will die.

Rusalki like to have men and children join in their games. They can do so by enticing men with their singing and then drowning them, while the children were often lured with baskets of fruit. Men seduced by a rusalka could die in her arms, and in some versions hearing her laugh could also cause death. Alternatively, they would attract men, mainly bachelors, and tickle them to death.
Specifics pertaining to rusalki differed between regions. Although in most tales they lived without men, in Ukraine they were often linked with water, while in Belarus they were linked with the forest and field. Where land was fertile, the maidens appeared naked and beautiful. In harsher areas of Russia, they appeared as “large breasted amazons”. Often, in the north, they were ugly and covered in hair.

– The rusalki were believed to be at their most dangerous during the Rusalka Week (Rusal’naia) in early June. At this time, they were supposed to have left their watery depths in order to swing on branches of birch and willow trees by night. Swimming during this week was strictly forbidden, lest mermaids would drag a swimmer down to the river floor. A common feature of the celebration of Rusal’naia was the ritual banishment or burial of the rusalka at the end of the week, which remained as entertainment in Russia until the 1930s.

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