January 2021

The zoo is one of only 2 outside Florida to play host to West Indian manatees; the manatees housed here are part of a rescue program and many are undergoing rehabilitation before release to the wild

Jamani is the 33rd gorilla to be born (4/2020) at the Columbus Zoo, where history was made in 1956 with Colo, the first gorilla to be born in human care; Colo further made history as she lived to be 60 years old—the oldest gorilla in human care

The Columbus Zoo is home to more than 7,000 animals representing 800+ species and sees 2.3+ million visitors annually; it was absolutely packed on a beautiful Saturday in November

The threatened Lake Erie water snake has one of the smallest geographic ranges of any vertebrate in the world - found only on the islands in Lake Erie

Betty White first visited the Columbus Zoo and met Jack Hanna in 1979 and they've been friends ever since; as a tribute, the Heart of Africa section of the park is on Betty White Way

Baltimore oriole; I skipped activities that I'd done elsewhere such as riding a camel ($7) or feeding the giraffes ($3); Jack Hanna made the zoo world famous with his many TV appearances (he's finally retiring from the zoo this year)

This reindeer must be disappointed with the lack of progress being made to address global warming; he didn't sign up to be in Columbus in November with 75 degree temperatures

Trumpeter swans were nearly driven to extinction in the early 20th century; starting in 1996, they were reintroduced in Ohio and their numbers are slowly increasing

In the water I find it impossible to photograph Asian small-clawed otters because they are so fast; native to South and Southeast Asia, they are the smallest otter species in the world

Although the endangered okapi has striped markings reminiscent of zebras, it is most closely related to the giraffe; found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo, successful breeding programs exist at the Bronx and San Diego Zoos

The green tree python is native to New Guinea, some islands in Indonesia, and the Cape York Peninsula in Australia; they have become popular in the pet trade but it is estimated that up to half die in transit

Admission to the Columbus Zoo was $21.99 with another $10 to park; supposedly they were limiting attendance due to the pandemic but it was easily the most crowded place I've been in months

Among the different species of chuckwalla, the San Esteban Chuckwalla is the largest and will often live 25 years or more; they can be found on San Esteban Island in the Sea of Cortez

Red-crowned cranes are endangered with fewer than 1700 remaining; they are the second rarest crane species after the whooping crane

The markhor is the largest goat and is found in Central Asia and the Western Himalayas; the national animal of Pakistan, there are only a few thousand left in the wild

The sloth is a type of bear that normally feeds mainly on ants and termites (that's lots of work for not much food); in 2008, the zoo added a nice waterpark called Zoombezi Bay

Siberian musk deer live in eastern parts of Asia and have been hunted for their musk pouches; I think half the people visiting the zoo had Ohio State-branded clothing

Red pandas can eat 45% of their body weight in a day (that means 200,000 bamboo leaves!); over the past 5 years the zoo has contributed $3.3+ million to more than 70 conservation projects in 30 countries

The greater mouse-deer is found in Sumatra, Borneo, and smaller Malaysian and Indonesian islands, and in southern Myanmar, southern Thailand, and peninsular Malaysia

Mandrills are the world's largest monkeys and are found in southern Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo; I enjoyed the many unusual species found at the zoo

Iconic guardians of the Art Institute of Chicago, the lions have stood at the Michigan Avenue entrance since the building’s inaugural year in 1893

Sky Above Clouds IV, Georgia O'Keeffe, 1965; the artist was a student at the Art Institute in 1905 with this monumental work (it's 24 ft by 8 ft) being completed when she was 77

Woman Bathing Her Feet in a Brook, Camille Pissarro, 1894; so many of these paintings I remember from my art history classes at the University of Houston

The Basket of Apples, Paul Cezanne, 1893; this painting, one of Cezanne's rare signed works, helped form the bridge from Impressionism to Cubism

Portrait of Marevna, Diego Rivera, 1925; early in his career, Rivera enjoyed a brief but sparkling period as a Cubist painter in Europe before returning to Mexico

Cotton Pickers, Thomas Hart Benton, 1945; painted based on notes from a trip to Georgia in the 1920s, Benton held progressive views on race and social relations

Harvest of Cherries, Robert Spear Dunning, 1866; I loved this piece by the artist more commonly associated with the textile mills of Falls River, Massachusetts

America Windows, Marc Chagall, 1977; these works present an unusual secular theme for Chagall, merging symbols of American history, the Chicago skyline, and the arts

The Key, Jackson Pollock, 1946; this quasi-Surrealist painting was completed the year before Pollock started his celebrated drip paintings

Mother and Child, Pablo Picasso, 1921; in 1917 the artist traveled to Rome and for the next few years painted monumental works inspired by antiquity

Golden Bird, Constantin Brancusi, 1920; in 1990, the museum sold 11 works at auction, including paintings by Monet, Picasso and Degas, to raise the $12 million purchase price for this sculpture

Portrait of Joaneta Obredor, Joan Miro, 1918; this piece predates the artist’s breakthrough in the early 1920s to a style of fantastic, simplified forms, freely and loosely scattered across the surface of his pictures

The Millinery Shop, Edgar Degas, 1886; the artist had an especially close relationship with Mary Cassatt, even painting her on occasion

Lucie Berard (Child in White), Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1883; a self-taught painter, Renoir would frequent the Louvre which was close to the porcelain factory where he worked and would copy the great works he saw there

Fishing in Spring, the Pont de Clichy (Asnieres), Vincent Van Gogh, 1887; the artist painted here with Paul Signac several times and you can see Signac's influence as Van Gogh's palette brightened

Londonderry Vase, 1813; commissioned by Napoleon, this extraordinary vase represents the great achievement of the Sevres porcelain factory during the Napoleonic period

Slant-Front Desk, Jacques Dubois, 1745; while Dubois did not provide furniture for the French court, he did produce pieces for royalty such as Madame Elisabeth, Louis XV's daughter

The Church of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, Michele Marieschi, 1741; to save money I bought the Chicago City Pass which gives you admission to 5 of the city's most popular attractions (some you still needed to reserve in advance)

Armchair, Thomas Chippendale, 1770; showing his transition to the Neo-Classical style, this chair was likely made for the English royal family

Kitchen Scene, Diego Velazquez, 1619; the artist painted a number of strikingly naturalistic genre scenes like this one early in his career, before he left his native Seville for Madrid

Old Man with a Gold Chain, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1631; in 1990, thieves got away with 13 pieces of art from the Gardner Museum in Boston, including Rembrandt's Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee; to this day, none of the paintings have been recovered

Table Clock, Andre-Charles Boulle, 1675; the artist became the most famous French cabinetmaker and the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry, also known as inlay

Hanging Head Dragonfly Shade on Mosaic and Turtleback Base, Tiffany Studios, 1906; the head of Tiffany's Women's Glass Cutting Department was likely responsible for the design of this shade and base

The Herring Net, Winslow Homer, 1885; summers spent visiting New England fishing villages played a huge role in the subject matter of the artist's paintings

Library Table, Frank Lloyd Wright, 1896; Wright drew upon the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement in formulating his own principles of architecture and design

Portrait of Charles Deering, John Singer Sargent, 1917; although best known for his portraits, Sargent was also an accomplish outdoor painter such as this piece set in Florida

Mastiff (Tomb Figurine), Eastern Han Dynasty, China, 25-220 AD; I wonder if the occupant of the tomb had a pet mastiff that he wanted to be buried with (like the Egyptians did)

When Cleveland City Hall opened in 1916, the city was the 5th largest in the country with 800,000 people; the city has struggled financially and today the population is down to only 400,000

52 story Terminal Tower was the second-tallest building in the world when it opened in 1930; it remained the tallest building in the world outside of New York City until the completion of the main building of Moscow State University in Moscow in 1953

The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Public Square contains marble tablets which are inscribed with the names of all 9,000 Cuyahoga County veterans; supposedly this is the only statue in which Abraham Lincoln is depicted holding a weapon

Dunham Tavern is the oldest building still standing on its original site in the city of Cleveland; opened in 1824, it was a stagecoach stop on the old road from Buffalo to Detroit

The Cleveland Museum of Art opened in 1916 in Wade Park, across from Case Western Reserve University; like many other art museums, it has Rodin's The Thinker greeting visitors

The tomb of President James A Garfield features stained glass windows and panes representing the original 13 colonies, plus the state of Ohio, deep red granite columns; and a 12-ft-tall white Carrara marble statue of the president

The business school at Case Western Reserve University was designed by Frank Gehry and has been compared to an exploding soda can; I cringe to think this is what tuition money is used for

Chester Beach created the Fountain of the Waters which was dedicated in 1928; it is located in the Fine Arts Garden which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted who also designed NYC's Central Park

The six-sided Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland opened in 2012 but has remained closed since March due to the coronavirus; it is a non-collecting museum but features three temporary exhibits each year

Cleveland owns the world's largest outdoor chandelier; the 20ft sparkler, with 4200 faux crystals, dangles over Playhouse Square which is home to ten different theaters

The Fountain of Eternal Life was designed by Cleveland Institute of Art graduate Marshall Fredericks and dedicated on May 30, 1964; it is situated on Veterans' Memorial Plaza as part of the Cleveland Mall

FirstEnergy Stadium, opened in 1999, is home to the Cleveland Browns (football); the Cleveland Indians (baseball) stadium is on the opposite side of downtown

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, designed by IM Pei, opened in 1995; a concert was held to celebrate featuring Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp

The Free Stamp is an outdoor sculpture located in Willard Park; created by Claes Oldenburg and his wife, it has been called the world's largest rubber stamp (29 ft by 26 ft)

George Washington, Gilbert Stuart, 1796; this life-size, iconic portrait of Washington is one of his most famous; the portrait was owned by the British for 170 yrs before the National Portrait Gallery bought it in 2001 for $20 million

Barack Obama, Kehinde Wiley, 2018; the chrysanthemums are the official flower of Chicago, the jasmine evokes Hawaii and the African blue lilies denote his Kenyan heritage; I liked Obama's portrait much more than that of Michelle

Thomas Jefferson, Rembrandt Peale, 1805; opened in 1968, the National Portrait Gallery is the only museum in the United States dedicated solely to portraiture; they now have 23,000+ items in their collection

William J Clinton, Chuck Close, 2006; a hallmark of the National Portrait Gallery's permanent collection is the Hall of Presidents, which contains portraits of all American presidents

George W Bush, Robert Anderson, 2008; Bush selected Anderson, with whom he went to Yale, to create this painting for the National Portrait Gallery; Bush wanted an informal image, posing in shirtsleeves at Camp David

George Washington, Rembrandt Peale, 1795; Peale was only 17 when he completed this work after his father had convinced Washington to sit for the portrait

Richard Nixon, Norman Rockwell, 1968; admitting that Nixon's appearance was troublesomely elusive, Rockwell chose to intentionally flatter him; he doesn't even look like a crook here

Jimmy Carter, Herbert Abrams, 1982; the National Portrait Gallery is the only place, other than the White House, that has portraits of every president; as part of the Smithsonian, admission is free

Thomas Jefferson, Gilbert Stuart, 1821; after sitting for his portrait in 1805, Jefferson waited sixteen years before it was finally delivered; Jefferson designed his own tombstone which listed many accomplishments but doesn't mention being president

Abraham Lincoln, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1887; the sculptor relied on his recollection of the impression that Lincoln made on him during Lincoln’s famous 1860 Cooper Union speech

George Washington, Jean-Antoine Houdon, 1786; in 1784, the Virginia General Assembly wanted a statue of Washington that would be the very best for its statehouse; Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson selected Houdon

The National Museum of African American History and Culture was opened by President Obama in September 2016; this was my first chance to visit the enormous facility (several levels are below ground) in which you could spend all day

LBJ used this pen to sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, is considered to be the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country;

Born into slavery, Harriet Tubman (her lace handkerchief) escaped and made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, using the Underground Railroad; during the Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army

The museum had several floors dedicated to the history of slavery which would be educational for students or international visitors; I found the higher floors with 20th and 21st century exhibits much more interesting

After escaping slavery, Douglass became an abolitionist leader famous for his oratory and incisive writings; he was a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent citizens

The National Museum of African-American History and Culture is one huge history lesson and includes iconic images like this photo from the sit-in at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro

John Lewis was one of the original 13 Freedom Riders and was beaten in SC, attacked in AL and then arrested in MS; Lewis spoke at the 1963 March on Washington and was first elected to Congress in 1986

This 1901 autobiography of educator Booker T. Washington describes his experience as a slave during the Civil War through to him founding the Tuskegee Institute; Modern Library listed it at No. 3 on a list of the 100 best 20th century nonfiction books

Now called CItizens Bank, this Nashville-based institution is the oldest continuously operating African-American owned bank in the country; it was founded in 1904

In 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat, the modern Civil Rights Movement began; her arrest sparked a bus boycott that lasted 381 days and brought national attention to Montgomery AL and Martin Luther King Jr

At age 14 Carlotta Walls LaNier was the youngest student chosen to integrate Little Rock Central High School in 1957; she became the first female African-American student to graduate there at what is now a US National Historic Site

The National Museum of African American History and Culture is 350,000 sq ft with 5 floors above ground and 5 below ground; it ranked as the fourth most-visited Smithsonian museum in its first full year of operation

Venus and Serena are the two highest earning female tennis players in history ($42 and $94 million respectively); they have 3 Olympic gold medals in doubles and each has won Olympic gold in singles too

This 1946 trumpet belonged to Louis Armstrong whose career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s; he was among the most influential figures in jazz history and the former main stadium at the US Open is named for him

Nike introduced the AIr Jordan in 1985 redefining the shoe market; Michael Jordan has made roughly $1.3 billion from his deal with Nike since signing with the brand in 1984, according to Forbes

View of Lake Okanagan, Grafton Tyler Brown, 1882; he was the first African-American artist to create works depicting the Pacific Northwest and California; the museum highlighted groundbreakers in many fields

Barack Obama was only a state senator from Illinois when he gave this memorable keynote address at the 2004 National Democratic Convention; I feel he's been the greatest president of my lifetime

The National Museum of African American History and Culture has a couple of floors dedicated to the impact on sports, theater, movies and music made by African-Americans; among the fascinating artifacts is this jacket worn by Michael Jackson

The Oprah Winfrey Show remains one of the highest-rated daytime talk shows in American television history and ran from 1986 to 2011; in syndication the show has aired in 149 countries

Nicknamed the Father of Rock and Roll, Berry (his 1973 Cadillac) refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as Maybellene, Roll Over Beethoven and Johnny B. Goode

In 2021 the U.S. Mint will issue an America the Beautiful quarter commemorating the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site; the coin depicts a Tuskegee Airman suiting up with two P-51 Mustangs flying overhead and the motto - They fought two wars

You want to talk about crowds at a Presidential inauguration!; as our first African-American president, Barack Obama made history and brought intelligence, dignity and worldwide admiration to the White House