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Libbey Dolls, Fashioning the Story: “They are representative fashion figures, depicting French style from A.D. 493 to 1915”

In 1917, their sale was hailed as the “greatest single purchase made at the Allied Bazaar,” a World War I-era fundraiser in New York. The 78 fashion figures, known then as the Doucet Dolls, were made using couture-quality fabrics and surplus mold-making materials from France’s premiere factories at Limoges and Sèvres.

The winning bidder? Toledo Museum of Art founder Edward Drummond Libbey, who purchased the collection for $30,000 (the equivalent of about $680,000 today), beating out newspaper giant M. H. de Young, among others, and contributing to the war relief fund in the process.

The collection was renamed the Libbey Dolls and put on display at the Museum from 1917 until 1972, when the figures were pulled from permanent view. Now, they return to the galleries until Feb. 12, 2017 in Libbey Dolls: Fashioning the Story, an exhibition exploring the story of the collection while showcasing the dolls’ relationship to fashion and the art world.

Conservation intern Marissa Stevenson prepares the Libbey Dolls for show; courtesy of the Toledo Museum of Art

The Libbey Dolls were a product of the World War I aid effort, when the porcelain factories at Limoges and Sèvres attempted to recover by putting wounded soldiers, out-of-work artisans and young men back to work making French novelties. The dolls were then shipped off to the United States to become part of a traveling exhibition marketing the talents and history of the French.

“They weren’t really considered dolls, at least not in our modern sense of the term,” said Marissa Stevenson, the art conservation intern tasked with researching the objects for the The Libbey Dolls — 2 exhibition. “They are representative fashion figures, depicting French style from A.D. 493 to 1915. No detail was spared making them.”

Inspiration for the figures came from works of art by great French artists such as Nicolas Lancret and Louis-Léopold Boilly, drawn from an 1864 publication by engravers Hippolyte Louis Émile Pauquet and Polydore Jean Charles Pauquet called “Modes et Costume Historiques.”

The dolls also represent dress from historical fashion publications, among them Costume Parisien, and contemporary stage actresses of the day, such as Gabrielle Dorziat, further highlighting French culture. Using surplus porcelain mold materials, the faces, arms and legs were fabricated in wax and plaster and painted in the likeness of the characters they represent. The figures were dressed using fabric remnants by prominent French couturier of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Jacques Doucet (1853–1929).

By the height of the Belle Époque at the turn of the century, the House of Doucet was highly sought after for its elegant garments. “Doucet could be considered one of the grandfathers of haute couture,” Stevenson said. “He was the epitome of what we consider a fashion designer today.”

Jacques Doucet Gown; George Barbier (1882-1932) – La gazette du bon ton

Each Doucet-clothed doll was meticulously and individually crafted down to the smallest detail. The elaborate costumes exhibit the same high degree of detail and finesse as Doucet’s full-scale garments. The ornate hats were fashioned by Marie Crozet, a coveted milliner of women’s hats and Doucet’s store neighbor.

“Doucet really pioneered the connection between fashion and the arts as we see it today — he had strong relationships with artists, writers and other creatives of the time,” Stevenson said. “The dolls are really a fascinating window into his work and influences.”

Libbey Dolls: Fashioning the Story is made possible by members of the Toledo Museum of Art and a sustainability grant from the Ohio Arts Council. Admission to the Museum and to the exhibition, on view in Gallery 18, is free

January 18, 2017
Interstate Health Insurance: Sounds Good, But Details Are Tricky

January 18, 2017

By Michael Ollove, Stateline

President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to allow health insurers to sell policies across state lines to spur competition and lower premiums.

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On his campaign website, Trump proclaimed that, “by allowing full competition in this market, insurance costs will go down and consumer satisfaction will go up.” He also touted the idea during the second presidential debate, and since the election, Vice President-elect Mike Pence has made the same argument.

The implication is that federal law prevents insurers from selling policies across state lines. That isn’t the case.

Between 2008 and 2012, five states — Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Rhode Island and Wyoming — passed laws specifically allowing out-of-state insurers not licensed in their states to sell health insurance policies within their borders.

Nevertheless, no insurers have taken advantage of the laws. That’s because entering an unfamiliar territory and creating a network of medical providers is exceedingly difficult and expensive, health policy analysts say.

But many health insurance analysts say that even if insurers were able to build provider networks in new states, it’s not a good idea. The cross-state sale of health insurance would undermine the states’ ability to regulate insurance, they warn, destabilizing their insurance markets and driving up premiums.

“It sounds great in a campaign to say we’re going to get rid of the lines,” said Gerald Kominski, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. “But what they’re really saying is we’re going to get rid of state regulations and consumer protections.”

All states license the insurers selling policies within their borders and regulate the health plans sold there. Each state has its own rules on the benefits insurers operating in their state must offer, the extent to which insurers can charge different premiums to older customers, and the financial assets insurers must maintain in order to do business in the state. The five states that have moved to encourage cross-border sales have indicated a willingness to set aside some of their own regulations.

Some larger insurers, such as Aetna, do sell policies in multiple states, but any company that does so must be licensed in every state where it operates, and must comply with each state’s laws. (This isn’t the case with “self-insured” employer-based plans that operate in multiple states, or plans in which the employer assumes the financial risk of providing health care benefits to its employees instead of paying a fixed premium to an insurer.)

And an insurer breaking into a new state likely would have to pay providers higher than prevailing rates to lure them into joining a new network.

“It takes a huge investment to get established in the health insurance market,” said Deborah Chollet, a senior fellow at the policy research organization Mathematica Policy Research. “Outsiders would have a hard time getting a foothold.”

With cross-state sales, insurers would be subject to the regulations in the state where they choose to base their operations. Critics say the proposal would encourage insurers to locate in lightly regulated states, but sell their policies nationwide.

January 18, 2017
Frontline: How “Obamacare” Became a Symbol of America’s Divide | Divided States of America

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and senior staff, react in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, as the House passes the health care reform bill. White House photographer Pete Souza

As President Barack Obama prepares to leave office and Donald Trump’s inauguration approaches, the Republican-led Congress is debating how to dismantle one of Obama’s signature efforts: The Affordable Care Act.

Enacted in 2010, and initially dubbed “Obamacare” by critics, the law has expanded health insurance for millions. But as Frontline’s new, two-night documentary, Divided States of America, shows, its passage also contributed to years of political polarization, the surge of the Tea Party movement, and a wave of anti-establishment sentiment that helped fuel Trump’s road to victory.

“What happened after it was passed, and because of the way it was passed, it became the symbol of the divide, and the reality of it in many ways,” David Maraniss of The Washington Post tells Frontline in the above excerpt from part one of Divided States of America. “And I don’t think Obama was expecting that.”

Airing Tues., Jan. 17 and Wed., Jan. 18, Divided States, from filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team, tells the inside story of how Obama’s promise of change, unity and bipartisanship quickly collided with political realities — including unified Republican opposition to his agenda — and racially-charged resistance.

From populist anger around the government’s handling of the 2008 financial crisis, to the resonance of Sarah Palin’s anti-elite and anti-establishment message, to a series of racial incidents between law enforcement and the African American community, Divided States identifies turning points over the past eight years that exposed simmering divisions among the American people — among them, the fraught passage of Obamacare in Congress without a single Republican vote.

In the above excerpt, go inside the White House on Christmas Eve 2009 — the night that health care reform passed in the House. The vote was the last hurdle for the bill to clear in Congress, and followed the president’s attempt to change the conversation around health care reform after a year in which he failed to gain bipartisan support.

As Divided States recounts, there was a moment of celebration for the president, who had previously told aides that reform was about “proving whether we can still solve big problems in this country.”

“I asked him, I said, how does this night compare to election night?” Obama’s senior adviser Valerie Jarrett tells Frontline. “And he looked at me and said, Valerie, there’s just no comparison. Election night was just about getting us to a night like this.”

But then came the backlash — from Tea Party supporters, from establishment Republicans, and ultimately, from Donald Trump himself, who’d make repealing the bill a key promise of his winning campaign.

“It was obviously a big moment of success for President Obama getting it passed, but it sowed the seeds for years of division and really leaves open the question as to whether or when the country might finally come to accept what he has done,” Peter Baker of The New York Times tells Frontline.

For more, watch Divided States of America on Tues., Jan. 17 and Wed., Jan. 18, at 9 p.m. EST/8 p.m. CST on PBS stations and online.

January 17, 2017
Jo Freeman’s Letter to Congressman Nadler About the Confirmation of Jeff Sessions and his Prosecution of Albert Turner in 1985

January 14, 2017

The Hon. Jerrold Nadler
2109 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Jerry:

Even though confirmation of Jeff Sessions to be the Attorney General is not a House function, as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, I know you are concerned with who heads the Department of Justice. Therefore I want to give you a little background on one of the reasons Sessions was not confirmed to be a federal district judge in 1986. At that time he was the US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.

After the 1984 elections, the Reagan Administration’s Justice Department investigated black political activists in five counties in the Alabama blackbelt. These were counties where the civil rights movement was active in the 1960s, leaving a legacy of politically-empowered black people. They were Greene, Perry, Sumter, Wilcox and Lowndes Counties, all with black majorities.

As you know from our previous conversations, in 1965-66 I worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), primarily doing voter registration in Alabama. I’ve tried to stay up on Alabama politics ever since. These five blackbelt counties elected some of the first black officials in the South in the 20th Century.

After flooding these counties with FBI agents looking for dirt, in 1985 the DoJ indicted eight people in two counties, charging them with various types of voter fraud, mostly having to do with marking absentee ballots. One of these was Albert Turner, head of the Perry County Civic League. He was SCLC’s Alabama state director in the 1960s.   I knew him as a fine man who was dedicated to bringing blacks into the electorate in order to improve his community.

Since I’m writing a book about working for SCLC, long ago I made an FOIA [Freedom of Information] request for Albert Turner’s FBI file, which you can do for dead people. All I got were three CDs containing affidavits collected by the FBI in preparation for the 1985 indictment and trial. I read them, and didn’t see any activity that wasn’t considered “normal politics” when done by whites throughout the state. I worked in Alabama during the primary election of 1966, so I know what was normally done by white election officials and those working for white candidates, usually the incumbents.

The Justice Department spent a lot of taxpayer money trying to convict eight blacks for doing “normal” politics when done by whites. US Attorney Jeff Sessions was the one who tried Albert Turner, his wife, and one other worker in federal court. Fortunately a lot had changed in 20 years. For one thing, juries were no longer composed strictly of white men. The judge threw out most of the charges and a jury of seven blacks and five whites acquitted the three on all charges. They too saw “normal politics” in what the three were charged with.

The other five defendants lived in Greene County, which is in Alabama’s Northern federal judicial District. In separate trials, only one was convicted, and only on a few counts. He was also an SCLC leader, as well as a member of a city council. To convict him the prosecutor struck all blacks from the jury pool. After hearing the evidence, the all-white jury split, indicating doubt about guilt. The judge would not let them go home until they agreed on something. They finally voted “guilty” on a couple counts. The conviction was later overturned by an appeals court.

Now that the attorney who prosecuted Albert Turner is about to head the DoJ, I hope you will keep a keen eye on any prosecutions of blacks, especially in the South, for voter fraud. These prosecutions cost defendants a lot of time, money and anxiety even when they are not guilty. The publicity discourages black political participation even in counties where they are a majority. Since Alabama blacks vote Democratic, that Republican Administration was looking to minimize the black vote. I doubt this one will be different.

Also pay particular attention to whom Sessions chooses to head the Civil Rights Division of the DoJ. Since that position has to be confirmed by the Senate, please ask our Senators to scrutinize closely the person nominated to be the Assistant AG for the CRD. The AAG in 1984-6 was not a supporter of civil rights.

It will take vigilance to keep the Republican DoJ from returning us to the day when blacks in the South were denied the vote by government bodies which manipulated the law to stay in power.

Your constituent and friend, Jo Freeman …

©2017 Jo Freeman

January 16, 2017
Masterpiece’s Victoria Drawn From the Queen’s Diaries, an Eight-Part Drama

Credit: Courtesy of ITV Plc

Editor’s Note: If the subject appeals we do recommend the movie version we viewed, The Young Victoria, with the excellent Emily Blunt as the Queen, Rupert Friend as Albert and Miranda Richardson as her mother.

Early one morning, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that her uncle William IV has died and she is now Queen of England. The men who run the country have doubts about whether this sheltered young woman, who stands less than five feet tall, can rule the greatest nation in the world. Surely she must rely on her mother and her venal advisor, Sir John Conroy, or her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, who are all too eager to relieve her of the burdens of power.

The young queen is no puppet, however. She has very definite ideas about the kind of queen she wants to be, and the first thing is to choose her name. Everyone keeps saying she is destined to marry her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, but Victoria found him dull and priggish when they met three years ago. She is quite happy being queen with the help of her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, who may be old enough to be her father but is the first person to take her seriously.

Drawing on Victoria’s diaries, which she first started reading when she was a student at Cambridge University, as well as her own brilliant gifts for history and drama, Daisy Goodwin, author of the bestselling novels The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunter as well as creator and writer of the new PBS/Masterpiece drama Victoria, brings the young queen richly to life.

Jenna Coleman stars as the young Victoria, a tiny (4’11”), neglected teenager who overnight became Queen and eventually the most powerful woman in the world. Masterpiece’s Executive Producer Rebecca Eaton said: “Victoria has it all, a riveting script, brilliant cast, and spectacular locations. And it’s a true story!”

Masterpiece is presented on PBS by WGBH Boston. The series is created and written by best-selling novelist Daisy Goodwin (The American Heiress) in her screenwriting debut. Ms. Goodwin read through 62 million words of Victoria’s diaries, which vividly portray her astonishing transformation form rebellious teenager to Queen.

The eight-part drama follows Victoria from the time she becomes Queen in 1837 at the age of 18, through her courtship and marriage to Prince Albert. Famous for her candor and spirit, she was the first woman who seemed to have it all: a passionate marriage, nine children, and the job of being Queen of the world’s most important nation. Victoria’s often tumultuous reign lasted for 63 years; she was England’s longest-serving monarch until she was overtaken by Elizabeth II in September, 2015.

In addition to Ms. Coleman, the stellar ensemble includes Rufus Sewell (The Man in the High Castle, The Pillars of the Earth) as Lord Melbourne, her first prime minister and intimate friend; Tom Hughes (Dancing on the Edge) as her husband Prince Albert; Alex Jennings (The Lady in the Van) as Leopold I, King of Belgium and uncle to both Victoria and Albert; Paul Rhys (Borgia, Being Human) as Sir John Conroy, the ambitious controller of the household of Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent; and Peter Firth (MI-5) as Victoria’s conniving uncle, the Duke of Cumberland.

Editor’s Note:

Queen Victoria’s journals

Queen Victoria’s World: This site offers some additional visual material in support of the online Queen Victoria’s Journals resource, which was the result of a unique partnership between the Bodleian Libraries and the Royal Archives, working in collaboration with the online publisher ProQuest.

Diary of Catherine Paget
Catherine Paget (1846-1935) visited Osborne House on 23 January 1868 while staying as a guest with friends in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.

Her account of the visit is included in a guard-book of miscellaneous papers held by the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford (MS. Eng. misc. d. 244, fol.184r-203r); the text can be downloaded at: Diary of Catherine Paget (February 1868).

Victorian music

This gallery presents a selection of front covers of musical scores which relate in some way to Queen Victoria. Some are dedicated to her or her family, some were written specifically to commemorate royal events, and others are simply works by composers she admired or works named for her favourite performers. All are from the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera, one of the largest and most important collections of printed ephemera in the world – the Collection is particularly strong with regard to the 19th century, and therefore contains innumerable images which relate to the world of Queen Victoria.

And another novel by Daisy Goodwin:

January 15, 2017
Janet Yellen Speaks at a Teachers Town Hall Meeting; The Gender Gap in Economics and the Leaky Pipeline Problem

Janet Yellen addresses a group of teachers of young adults.

https://youtu.be/K4cjryTx3uY

CHAIR YELLEN.

Well, thank you, Amy, and thank you to all the educators who have come to the Board this evening or traveled to one of the Fed’s regional Reserve Banks to watch and listen via the webcast.

I am very much looking forward to hearing from you about teaching economics, and I am eager to respond to your questions. For that reason, and also because I expect that school starts very early tomorrow for many of you, I will try to keep my remarks brief. But I do have a message to impart about the work you do, which is vitally important not only to your students, but also, I believe, to the world they will soon inherit and even to the mission of the Federal Reserve.

First and foremost, of course, like all teachers, you are helping prepare your students for successful and rewarding lives. The knowledge you impart and the intellect and talents you help develop are powerful tools your students can use to build those lives. Like some other subjects students encounter in school, economics teaches analytical and critical thinking skills that can aid in the development and success of anyone. Part of success for your students is economic success – – as capable, creative, and productive members of the workforce and as consumers adept at managing their finances. Economics provides knowledge and skills of practical use in college and in the workplace, and it also provides skills to plan and make wise financial decisions, which are some of the most important and consequential that we face in life.

Your students benefit very directly from this education, but so does everyone else in society. Everyone is engaged in and depends on the economy, and nothing is more critical to a healthy and growing economy than the capability, creativity, and productiveness of its workforce. Whenever I am asked what policies and initiatives could do the most to spur economic growth and raise living standards, improving education is at the top of my list.

In addition to the role you play in preparing students for jobs and careers, you also help prepare them to be responsible consumers. The economy needs productive workers, and it also depends on consumers, whose individual spending decisions, as most of you surely have taught in class, collectively account for two-thirds of economic activity. Consumers skilled in managing their finances are better prepared to weather bad times, and stronger household finances overall can help sustain growth, stabilize the economy, and mitigate an economic downturn.

Stabilizing the economy and mitigating a downturn, of course, also happen to be among the Federal Reserve’s primary responsibilities. When successful, monetary policy can be a powerful and effective tool to these ends, but its capabilities are dwarfed by larger factors such as the productivity of the workforce and the strength of household finances. By educating students and directly supporting their contributions to the economy as producers and consumers, all teachers, especially teachers of economics, are effectively furthering our mission at the Fed, so let me offer my thanks for making that job a little easier.

To help support your important work as teachers, the Federal Reserve Board and the 12 Reserve Banks conduct programs, organize events, and publish books and other materials to spread knowledge of the role of the Fed–and economics in general–and to promote financial literacy. Before I get to those events and programs, let me say a word about what is probably the most important pedagogical aid that the Fed produces—that’s the 182-page book called The Federal Reserve System: Purposes and Functions. The 10th edition of Purposes and Functions, published in October of last year, offers a detailed and comprehensive account of what, why, and how the Fed carries out its different responsibilities. I think it is a wonderful resource for teaching about the Fed, and copies are available via the Board’s website.

Each of the Fed’s Reserve Banks has community outreach and educational initiatives in the areas of the country they serve, and the outreach to economics teachers is coordinated by the group chaired by Amy Hennessy, the Federal Reserve System Economic Education Group.

At the Board, we have for some years operated a program called FedEd, which sends Fed employees into schools throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and sponsors events for students here at the Eccles Building. FedEd’s outreach to schools depends on the time and sacrifice of several dozen research assistants, who are typically recent college grads who work for two or three years at the Board. Research assistants who volunteer for FedEd visit schools; help teach about the Fed, economics, and finance; and answer questions about work opportunities at the Board. The Federal Reserve is committed to promoting diversity in our ranks and in the economics profession, and FedEd has furthered these goals by making sure to include schools with significant numbers of minority students.

This past school year, FedEd sent research assistants into nine different schools and FedEd volunteers have visited 38 different schools since 2012. FedEd was back in schools last fall, drawing from 48 research assistants who volunteered to participate. FedEd also sponsors several speaker events a year that bring students into this Board Room. Students recently heard a presentation from Scott Alvarez, who oversees the Board’s Legal Division, and, in February, Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer will speak to students at another event. FedEd is overseen by two research assistants, Caroline Shinkle and Jamie Lenney, along with Karen Pence, who is an economist at the Board. All three are with us this evening and prepared to answer further questions about the program.

January 13, 2017
The Huntington: Expressionist Landscape Bit of Silvermine, Clivia and a Bronze Art Deco Lachaise Piece and a Passion Flower

The Huntington was founded by railroad and real estate magnate Henry Edwards Huntington in 1919. The museum and gardens opened to the public in 1928

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, CA has acquired three works by important 20th-century California painters as well as a significant American sculpture. Charles Reiffel’s intense 1916 expressionist landscape, Bit of Silvermine – The Old Farm House, Henrietta Shore’s lilting Clivia (1930), and Gaston Lachaise’s elegant bronze Art Deco masterpiece, The Peacocks (1918), were acquired in recent months. Passion Flower (1945) by modernist painter and founding member of the Transcendental Painting Group, Agnes Pelton, has officially joined the collections. All four pieces currently are on view in the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art.

“We’ve been looking to add paintings by Pelton and Shore to the collections for some time, and the resplendent Reiffel, on loan to us for the past few years, has generously been made a gift to us, said Kevin Salatino, Director of the Art Collections at The Huntington. “What a pleasure it is finally to have acquired stellar examples by each of these artists. As for Lachaise’s great The Peacocks, it beautifully complements The Huntington’s growing collection of important American sculpture from the 18th to the 20th century.”

Agnes Pelton, American (1886–1961), Passion Flower, ca. 1945, oil on canvas, 24 × 16 in.

Pelton was born in Germany to American parents, spent her early career in New York studying with Arthur Wesley Dow (with whom Georgia O’Keeffe also studied), and moved to Cathedral City, Calif., in 1932. At the time, Cathedral City was an isolated desert enclave, allowing the artist the mystical serenity she craved for her work.

In 1938, Pelton became a founding member of the Transcendental Painting Group (based in Santa Fe, NM), which was formed to promote non-objective painting and was influenced by Theosophy, Zen Buddhism, and other forms of non-Western thought. From the 1920s on, Pelton’s paintings became more and more visionary, and her technique, relying upon a complex layering of colors, developed an inner radiance that characterizes her finest work. About her, Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight has written “Pelton infused an organic light into the otherwise machine-influenced Art Deco styling of the 1920s and 1930s, creating easel paintings that are like modern talismans of spiritual wonderment.”

Pelton was the subject of a traveling exhibition, Agnes Pelton, Poet of Nature, in 1995, and was one of four female artists featured in the 2009 Orange County Museum of Art exhibition Illumination: The Paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin, and Florence Miller Pierce.

Charles Reiffel (1862–1942), Bit of Silvermine – The Old Farm House, 1916, oil on canvas, 34 1/2 × 37 1/4 in.

A highlight of the early 20th-century paintings on view in the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American art since their expansion in 2014, Bit of Silvermine – The Old Farm House is a gift of collectors Sandra and Bram Dijkstra, who previously donated Charles White’s painting, Soldier (1944) and Robert S. Duncanson’s Landscape with Ruin (ca. 1853) to The Huntington. Bit of Silvermine, painted nearly a decade before Reiffel decamped from the east coast to settle permanently in San Diego, has been called the breakthrough painting of the artist’s career. Its brilliant palette, expressionist landscape (set in the artist’s colony of Silvermine, Conn.), and vigorous brushstroke, make it a work attuned to contemporary movements in Europe.

Well-known and highly regarded in his lifetime, Reiffel fell into obscurity after his death. The exhibition, Charles Reiffel: An American Post-Impressionist, held at the San Diego Museum of Art in 2013, helped to revive his reputation.

Bit of Silvermine joins a group of 20th-century American landscapes at The Huntington that include works by such iconic modernists as Edward Hopper, Arthur Dove, and Charles Sheeler.

Henrietta Shore (1880 – 1963), Clivia, ca. 1930, oil and pencil on canvas laid down on board, 26 × 26 in.

Another painter whose reputation suffered after her death, Shore also has experienced a surge of interest in recent years. In her lifetime she was frequently compared to Georgia O’Keeffe. But, unlike O’Keeffe, who made her career on the East Coast and was connected to the most influential “avant-garde tastemakers, the Canadian-born Shore moved to Los Angeles in 1913, and quickly became a member of its vanguard art circles, which included modern dance pioneer Ruth St. Denis. Shore eventually befriended the photographer Edward Weston, to whom she allegedly lent the nautilus shell that became the subject of one of his best-known photographs.

In 1930, Shore followed Weston to Carmel, Calif. “It was in Carmel that she painted some of her most seductive and modernist works, among them Clivia,” said Salatino. “Its flame-colored blooms and sinuous leaves exude a vibrant sensuality through reductive form that defines many of her idiosyncratic images of the natural world. Clivia is an example of Shore at her best.”

January 12, 2017
Buzz Polinator Endanged: Rusty Patched Bumble Bee Could Be Lost Due to Habitat Loss and Degradation

Photo courtesy of Dan Mullen

Fact Sheet

PDF Version

The US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the rusty patched bumble bee as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Endangered species are animals and plants that are in danger of becoming extinct. Identifying, protecting and recovering endangered species is a primary objective of the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s endangered species program.

What is a rusty patched bumble bee? Appearance:

Rusty patched bumble bees live in colonies that include a single queen and female workers. The colony produces males and new queens in late summer. Queens are the largest bees in the colony, and workers are the smallest. All rusty patched bumble bees have entirely black heads, but only workers and males have a rusty reddish patch centrally located on the back.

Illustrations of a rusty patched bumble bee queen (left), worker (center), and male (right).

By Elaine Evans, The Xerces Society.

Habitat: Rusty patched bumble bees once occupied grasslands and tallgrass prairies of the Upper Midwest and Northeast, but most grasslands and prairies have been lost, degraded, or fragmented by conversion to other uses. Bumble bees need areas that provide nectar and pollen from flowers, nesting sites (underground and abandoned rodent cavities or clumps of grasses), and overwintering sites for hibernating queens (undisturbed soil).

Reproduction: Rusty patched bumble bee colonies have an annual cycle. In spring, solitary queens emerge and find nest sites, collect nectar and pollen from flowers and begin laying eggs, which are fertilized by sperm stored since mating the previous fall. Workers hatch from these first eggs and colonies grow as workers collect food, defend the colony, and care for young. Queens remain within the nests and continue laying eggs. In late summer, new queens and males also hatch from eggs. Males disperse to mate with new queens from other colonies. In fall, founding queens, workers and males die. Only new queens go into diapause (a form of hibernation) over winter – and the cycle begins again in spring.

Why Conserve Rusty Patched Bumble Bees? As pollinators, rusty patched bumble bees contribute to our food security and the healthy functioning of our ecosystems. Bumble bees are keystone species in most ecosystems, necessary not only for native wildflower reproduction, but also for creating seeds and fruits that feed wildlife as diverse as songbirds and grizzly bears.

Bumble bees are among the most important pollinators of crops such as blueberries, cranberries, and clover and almost the only insect pollinators of tomatoes. Bumble bees are more effective pollinators than honey bees for some crops because of their ability to “buzz pollinate.” The economic value of pollination services provided by native insects (mostly bees) is estimated at $3 billion per year in the United States.

Feeding Habits: Bumble bees gather pollen and nectar from a variety of flowering plants. The rusty patched emerges early in spring and is one of the last species to go into hibernation. It needs a constant supply and diversity of flowers blooming throughout the colony’s long life, April through September.

Range: Historically, the rusty patched bumble bee was broadly distributed across the eastern United States and Upper Midwest, from Maine in the U.S. and southern Quebec and Ontario in Canada, south to the northeast corner of Georgia, reaching west to the eastern edges of North and South Dakota. Its range included 28 states, the District of Columbia and 2 provinces in Canada. Since 2000, this bumble bee has been reported from only 13 states and 1 Canadian province: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin – and Ontario, Canada.

Why is the rusty patched bumble bee declining?

Habitat loss and degradation: Most of prairies and grasslands of the Upper Midwest and Northeast have been converted to monoculture farms or developed areas, such as cities and roads. Grasslands that remain tend to be small and isolated.

Intensive farming: Increases in farm size and technology advances improved the operating efficiency of farms but have led to practices that harm bumble bees, including increased use of pesticides, loss of crop diversity which results in flowering crops being available for only a short time, loss of hedgerows and the flowers that grew there, and loss of legume pastures.

Disease: Pathogens and parasites may pose a threat to rusty patched bumble bees, although their prevalence and effects in North American bumble bees are not well understood.

Pesticides: The rusty patched bumble bee may be vulnerable to pesticides used across its range. Pesticides are used widely on farms and in cities and have both lethal and sublethal toxic effects. Bumble bees can absorb toxins directly through their exoskeleton and through contaminated nectar and pollen. Rusty patched bumble bees nest in the ground and may be susceptible to pesticides that persist in agricultural soils, lawns and turf.

Global climate change: Climate changes that may harm bumble bees include increased temperature and precipitation extremes, increased drought, early snow melt and late frost events. These changes may lead to more exposure to or susceptibility to disease, fewer flowering plants, fewer places for queens to hibernate and nest, less time for foraging due to high temperatures, and asynchronous flowering plant and bumble bee spring emergence.

What is being done to conserve rusty patched bumble bees?

US Fish and Wildlife Service: Several Service programs work to assess, protect, and restore pollinators and their habitats. Also, the Service works with partners to recover endangered and threatened pollinators and pollinator-dependent plants. Concern about pollinator declines prompted formation of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, a collaboration of people dedicated to pollinator conservation and education. The Service has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Pollinator Partnership to work together on those goals. The Service is a natural collaborator because our mission is to work with others to conserve, fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats.

Other Efforts: Trusts, conservancies, restoration groups and partnerships are supporting pollinator initiatives and incorporating native plants that support bees and other pollinators into their current activities. For example, the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service is working with landowners in Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin to make bee-friendly conservation improvements to their land. Improvements include the practices of planting cover crops, wildflowers, or native grasses and improved management on grazing lands.

Research: Researchers are studying and monitoring the impacts of GMO crops and certain pesticides on pollinators. Efforts by citizen scientists and researchers to determine the status of declining bee species are underway throughout the US.

What can I do to help conserve the rusty patched bumble bee?

Garden: Grow a garden or add a flowering tree or shrub to your yard. Even small areas or containers on patios can provide nectar and pollen for native bees.

Native plants: Use native plants in your yard such as lupines, asters, bee balm, native prairie plants and spring ephemerals. Don’t forget spring blooming shrubs like ninebark and pussy willow! Avoid invasive non-native plants and remove them if they invade your yard. For more information on attracting native pollinators, visit www.fws.gov/pollinators/pdfs/PollinatorBookletFinalrevWeb.pdf.

Natural landscapes: Provide natural areas – many bumble bees build nests in undisturbed soil, abandoned rodent burrows or grass clumps. Keep some unmowed, brushy areas and tolerate bumble bee nests if you find them. Reduce tilling soil and mowing where bumble bees might nest. Support natural areas in your community,

Minimize: Limit the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizer whenever possible or avoid them entirely. Pesticides cause lethal and sublethal effects to bees and other pollinators.

January 11, 2017
Women’s Action for New Directions Demands US Senate Confirm Those “who have an established record of respecting the importance of diplomacy and other tools of statecraft over the unnecessary use of force”
A coalition of progressive state lawmakers from around the country on Monday sent a letter to Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), demanding the US Senate only confirm cabinet nominees “who have an established record of respecting the importance of diplomacy and other tools of statecraft over the unnecessary use of force, respecting civil liberties, placing American interests over personal interests, and upholding our sacred tradition of a civilian-led government.”

Graphic (right) from Wand.org

The letter was organized by the legislative arm of Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND), a Cambridge-based grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to amplifying women’s voices in national security, disarmament, and anti-militarization campaigns. Signed by 125 female and male state legislators, the letter has the backing of groups including the Arms Control Association, Global Zero, National Priorities Project, Peace Action, and Win Without War.

It calls for nominees to be “evaluated around five principles core to maintaining American strength abroad and at home”:

Diplomacy Over Military Intervention. We urge you to oppose nominees who see war and conflict as the best or only means to defend America’s interests.

Arms Control. We urge you to oppose nominees who seek to maintain or increase the number of nuclear weapons in the world, rather than support policies of nonproliferation, reduction, and eventual elimination.

Civil Liberties. We urge you to oppose nominees who would undermine the civil liberties of the American people enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution.

Conflicts of Interest. We urge you to oppose nominees whose personal or professional interests might conflict, or have the perception of conflict, with the interests of the public they serve.

Civilian Leadership. While we strongly respect the experience and credentials of our military’s active and retired generals, we urge you to oppose nominees who would undermine the core American philosophy of civilian leadership.

From the selection of multiple military generals for top positions in his administration to the abundant conflicts of interest among his wealthy cabinet nominees, it appears President-elect Donald Trump has been using a different rubric—and that’s not even taking into account Trump’s own recent statements advocating a nuclear arms race.

The letter does not name any of Trump’s nominees specifically, but an accompanying press release pointed to picks like Rex Tillerson (for secretary of state), Jeff Sessions (for attorney general), and Rick Perry (for energy secretary) as among those who might not fit the bill.

Of Perry, for example, the group notes that he “famously couldn’t remember the name of the Department of Energy, but claimed he planned to eliminate it if president. Sixty percent of the department’s budget relates to nuclear weapons and has most recently been run by trained physicists. The most recent Energy Secretary, Ernie Moniz, had a major role in negotiating the nuclear agreement with Iran, providing vital technical support. It is essential the department be led by someone who understands its major role in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons around the globe, not to mention someone who doesn’t philosophically believe the agency should be dismantled.”

Legislators signing this letter hail from Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

Their perspective is unique, they write, because “US national security policy has implications in our home states. From crumbling bridges and inadequate road maintenance to the opioid crisis and a lack of support for our veterans, the last 15 years of war and nation-building endeavors have taken an enormous toll on our communities and our ability as state lawmakers to provide critical services to our constituents.”

Former Maine state representative and WAND national security political director Diane Russell explained: “Here in Portland, Maine, parents are organizing to convince the city to fund four new elementary schools because ours are falling apart. I served eight years in the Maine House and I can tell you there’s no money at the state level to help because we have sent that money overseas.”

Of Tillerson, she said, “We need a secretary of state who will put diplomacy first and keep more of our money at home.”
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January 9, 2017

Senate Confirmation Hearings Schedule for The Week Beginning on the 1/09/17 and Financial Disclosure Reports

Employees Entering Government: Individuals who join the executive branch may be required to take actions, either before becoming an employee or shortly thereafter, in order to comply with ethics laws and regulations concerning conflicting financial interests and impartiality.

A list of new Nominees and Confirmations can be obtained from the Senate’s “Nominations Confirmed (Civilians)” website.

Find Committee Hearings: Transcripts of hearings may be available on a committee Web site, from the Government Printing Office, or from a federal depository library. Learn how to find Committee Hearings.

Right: Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC

Public Financial Disclosure Reports (Open View)

Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report (OGE Form 278e) Filer’s Information Tillerson, Rex Wayne Secretary of State, Department of State

Hearings:

Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017

9:30 AM EST
	Judiciary
		Hearings to examine the nomination of Jeff Sessions, of Alabama, to be Attorney General, Department of Justice.
SR-325

10:00 AM
	Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Subcommittee on Investigations
		Hearings to examine backpage.com’s facilitation of online sex trafficking.
SD-342

3:30 PM
	Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
		Hearings to examine the nomination of General John F. Kelly, USMC (Ret.), to be Secretary of Homeland Security.
SD-342

Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017

9:30 AM
	Judiciary
		Hearings to examine the nomination of Jeff Sessions, of Alabama, to be Attorney General, Department of Justice.
SR-325


	Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
		Note: Hearings to examine the nomination of Betsy DeVos, of Michigan, to be Secretary of Education have been postponed until next week.

10:15 AM
	Commerce, Science, and Transportation
		Hearings to examine the nomination of Elaine L. Chao, to be Secretary of Transportation.
SR-253
Confirmation Hearing for Rep. Michael R. Pompeo, Nominee for Director of Central Intelligence Agency; Senate Intel Committee Announces Nomination Hearing When: Wednesday, January 11th 2017 at 10:00 am Where: Hart Senate Office Building Room 216

Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017

9:30 AM
	Armed Services
		Hearings to examine the nomination of James N. Mattis, to be Secretary of Defense; to be immediately followed by a business meeting to consider legislation to provide for an exception to a limitation against appointment of persons as Secretary of Defense within seven years of relief from active duty as a regular commissioned officer of the Armed Forces.
SD-G50

10:00 AM
	Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
		Hearings to examine the nomination of Benjamin Carson, of Michigan, to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
SD-538
http://www.banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/1/nomination-hearing

10:00 AM
	Commerce, Science, and Transportation
		Hearings to examine the nomination of Wilbur L. Ross, Jr., to be Secretary of Commerce.
SR-253

Additional Senate Action:

Senate Takes Major Step Toward Repealing Health Care Law

January 8, 2017

Blog

Editor’s Note:

Victorian music

Fact Sheet

What is a rusty patched bumble bee? Appearance:

Why is the rusty patched bumble bee declining?

What can I do to help conserve the rusty patched bumble bee?

Hearings:

Additional Senate Action: