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  • No Excuses: Hiding Toxic Ingredients In Cleaning Products

    EWG’s Online Guide to Healthy Cleaning’ Many Cleaners Contain Toxics, Some “Green” Cleaners Hide Ingredients

    Some household cleaning products can expose unsuspecting users to toxic substances linked to short- and long-term health problems, including asthma, allergic reactions and even cancer.

    In an effort to help consumers find safer products, the Environmental Working Group has created the first online guide that rates more than 2,000 household cleaners with grades A through F for safety of ingredients and disclosure of contents.silver ewer for washing hands

    “Keeping your home clean shouldn’t put you and your family at risk, and with EWG’s new online guide you won’t have to,” EWG senior scientist Rebecca Sutton, Ph.D, said. “Quite a few cleaning products that line store shelves are packed with toxic chemicals that can wreak havoc with your health, including many that harm the lungs. The good news is, there are plenty of cleaning products that will get the job done without exposing you to hazardous substances.”

    Just 7 percent of cleaning products adequately disclosed their contents. To uncover what’s in common household cleaners, EWG’s staff scientists spent 14 months scouring product labels and digging through company websites and technical documents. EWG staff reviewed each ingredient against 15 US and international toxicity databases and numerous scientific and medical journals.

    Ingredient labels are mandatory for food, cosmetics and drugs sold in the US — but not for cleaning products. Bowing to pressure from customers and the threat of federal regulation, most companies list at least some ingredients on their labels and websites. A few companies disclose nothing, while others list just one or a few of their ingredients or describe them in vague terms such as “surfactant” and “solvent.”

    Key findings:

    • Some 53 percent of cleaning products assessed by EWG contain ingredients known to harm the lungs. About 22 percent contain chemicals reported to cause asthma to develop in otherwise healthy individuals.
    • Formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen, is sometimes used as a preservative or may be released by other preservatives in cleaning products. It may form when terpenes, found in citrus and pine oil cleaners and in some essential oils used as scents, react with ozone in the air.
    • The chemical 1,4-dioxane, a suspected human carcinogen, is a common contaminant of widely-used detergent chemicals.
    • Chloroform, a suspected human carcinogen, sometimes escapes in fumes released by products containing chlorine bleach.

    Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of Mermaid ewer and basin; Hallmarked for 1610-1611. Silver, embossed and engraved. used for the washing of hands during and after a meal. Rosewater or other sweet-scented warm water was most commonly used for this purpose. 

  • Someone To Watch Over Me … And My Shoes

    by Rose Madeline Mula

    I can’t prove there is a God; but I am certain that some sort of all-knowing, all-seeing being exists who knows exactly what I’m up to at all times and doesn’t miss an opportunity to zap me with his/her/its guilt taser when I least expect it.ballerinas

    Case in point: A while back, my friend Cindy and I were driving to the rocky shores of Maine for a long weekend when we passed a warehouse emblazoned with signs proclaiming “Giant Shoe Sale!”  Since we’re always in the market for shoes, especially giant ones (I wear a size 9, Cindy a 10), we made an illegal U-turn, sped back to the warehouse, and rushed inside.

    Again, I have no concrete evidence that God exists, but I now know for sure that there’s a heaven.  Cindy and I entered it that day.  No Saint Peter and no pearly gates, but gazillions of deeply-discounted designer shoes.  I lost count of how many trips it took us to haul our stash back to the car.  The proverbial kid in a candy store couldn’t possibly be happier than we were … until the next morning when we went to church.

    The celebrant of the Mass that morning was a visiting missionary from a tropical third-world country I had never heard of.  His message was powerful.  “In my country,” he said, “my people are so poor, they don’t even have any shoes.”

    SHOES!!!  Couldn’t he have said his people had no shelter … no food … no water … no clothing … no indoor plumbing … no schools … or even no Walmarts or no TV (except maybe only basic cable) …????  No!  He had to say they had no shoes!  I shrunk into the pew, put a twenty into the collection box, and made a silent vow to rush back to the hotel after Mass, gather every single pair of my newly-acquired footwear, rush back to church, and lay all of them at the feet of that missionary.  (Though I have no idea what the natives in his tropic slum are going to do with some of them — especially those fur-lined thigh-high boots.)

    That experience actually soured me on all shopping for a few months; but a couple of weeks ago, badly in need of some retail therapy after my long dry spell, I succumbed to the hype surrounding the opening of a humongous new outlet mall with acres and acres of stores  where I made up for lost time and went on a buying binge.  I then made the mistake — again— of going to church (will I never learn?) for a Saturday afternoon Mass.  And in that church adjacent to the mammoth new shopping mall, the priest chose as the topic of his homily the story of Christ exhorting his disciples who were preparing to follow him to take only a walking stick and the clothes on their backs.  What? Not even a fanny pack, or an extra pair of Nikes?  No, said Christ, condemning excess.  What must He have been thinking of the dozens of overstuffed shopping bags in the trunk of my car?

    Okay, okay.  I can take a hint.  Enough with the shopping already.  The next time I was tempted to acquire still more stuff, I bypassed the stores and ducked into the nearest restaurant to sedate my buying urge with food.  It worked.  After a tangy shrimp cocktail, followed by a salad with blue cheese dressing, I had a melt-in-your-mouth filet mignon, a baked potato with sour cream, and green beans almondine.   And though I usually deny myself dessert, I felt I should indulge this time to insure that I had safely stifled my shopping urge — at least until all the stores had closed for the evening.   I couldn’t decide between a hot fudge sundae or strawberry shortcake, so I had both. 

    When I waddled into my house, I turned on the TV before collapsing on the couch.  I couldn’t believe what I saw.  The channel was tuned to a documentary featuring starving children in a remote African village.  Their mother had made mud pies which she was drying in the sun.  “She will feed these to her babies,” the commentator explained, “hoping they might contain some calcium.”

    Three transgressions.  Three immediate rebukes.   Coincidences?

    I think not.

    ©2012  Rose Madeline Mula.  Rose’s newest book, The Beautiful People and Other Aggravations, can be ordered through through Amazon.com and other online bookstores, and at Pelican Publishing (800-843-1724), as is her previous book,  If These Are Laugh Lines, I’m Having Way Too Much Fun. 

  • Winslow Homer and His Maine Studio: “Look at nature, work independently, and solve your own problems”

    Winslow Homer studio 

    Winslow Homer Studio – Southeast Corner, 2012 ©trentbellphotography

    To commemorate the opening of the newly restored Winslow Homer Studio, the Portland Museum of Art will present the exhibition Weatherbeaten: Winslow Homer and Maine. On view through December 30, 2012, this unique exhibition features 38 major oils, watercolors, and etchings created during Homer’s tenure in the Studio (1883–1910). The works come from museums and private collectors throughout the country, including The Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Many of these works have not been on exhibition in Maine* for a more than a generation and, due to their extraordinary rarity and importance to their institutional owners, will likely not be seen together again for decades to come.

    Weatherbeaten explores the range and complexity of Homer’s mature artistic vision which came to fruition at his Prouts Necks studio on the Maine coast. Inspired by the rugged beauty and dramatic weather of this locale, he produced works that revolutionized marine painting in American art and created an iconic and enduring image of the New England coast. The Portland Museum of Art’s painting Weatherbeaten (1894) serves as both the namesake for the exhibition and a quintessential example of the artist’s late work. This image of rough waves crashing against a rocky shore embodies Homer’s ability to capture the specificity of a place, while simultaneously meditating upon the timeless forces of nature.Fox Hunt

    Winslow Homer
    1836 – 1910
    Fox Hunt, 1893
    oil on canvas
    38 x 68 1/2 inches
    Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Joseph E. Temple Fund. Photo: Barbara Katus.

    *We discovered that Homer’s cousin, Augusta, was married to famed sculptor, Saint-Gaudens. Their house in New Hampshire is designed as a National Historic Site and has a home, studios and gardens. Over 100 of his artworks are in the galleries and on the grounds, from heroic public monuments to expressive portrait reliefs, and the gold coins which changed the look of American coinage. 

  • The Endeavour Day: FDR’s Evolving Approach to Fiscal Policy in Times of Crisis

    Editor’s Note: On a day when the space shuttle Endeavour was flown over our location in Northern California on its way to the California Science Center, we were provided an inspirational view at what United States federal budgets have been funded to create.

    FDR: From Budget Balancer to Keynesian

    FDR at dedication of Boulder Dam, September 30, 1936.FDR at Dedication of Boulder (now Hoover) Dam, September 30, 1936. FDR Library Photo.

    FDR began his 1932 campaign for the presidency espousing orthodox fiscal beliefs. He promised to balance the federal budget, which Herbert Hoover had been unable to do. Indeed, when FDR came into office, the national deficit was nearly $3,000,000,000.

    FDR’s budget balancing was not only based on traditional fiscal economics, but also on politics. Roosevelt believed that a balanced budget was important to instill confidence in consumers, business, and the markets, which would thus encourage investment and economic expansion. As the economy recovered, tax revenues would increase making budget balancing even easier. This traditional view that deficits were bad was also supported by public opinion polls.

    But the fiscal orthodoxy of budget balancing did not match the reality of the economic situation of an America with nearly a quarter of its working population unemployed. From 1933 to 1937, FDR maintained his belief in a balanced budget, but recognized the need for increased government expenditures to put people back to work. Each year, FDR submitted a budget for general expenditures that anticipated a balanced budget, with the exception of government expenditures for relief and work programs.

    He considered such programs to be emergency in nature, and therefore separate from usual governmental outlays. Such spending brought protests from fiscal conservatives, which FDR answered in 1936 at a campaign speech in Pittsburgh:

    To balance our budget in 1933 or 1934 or 1935 would have been a crime against the American people. To do so we should either have had to make a capital levy that would have been confiscatory, or we should have had to set our face against human suffering with callous indifference. When Americans suffered, we refused to pass by on the other side. Humanity came first.

    No one lightly lays a burden on the income of a Nation. But this vicious tightening circle of our declining national income simply had to be broken. The bankers and the industrialists of the Nation cried aloud that private business was powerless to break it. They turned, as they had a right to turn, to the Government. We accepted the final responsibility of Government, after all else had failed, to spend money when no one else had money left to spend.

    As the economy improved, more Americans were working, and there was an anticipation of increased tax revenues as a result of the recovery. From 1933 to 1937, unemployment had been reduced from 25% to 14% – still a large percentage, but a vast improvement. FDR’s reaction was to turn back to the fiscal orthodoxy of the time, and he began to reduce emergency relief and public works spending in an effort to truly balance the budget. The country then lurched into what is now known as the Roosevelt Recession of 1937-1938. Unemployment threatened to rise to pre-New Deal levels, and the economy came grinding to a halt.

    Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr., and aides within the Treasury Department favored an approach that sought to balance the federal budget. But other advisers in the President’s inner circle, including Harry Hopkins, Marriner Eccles, and Henry Wallace, had accepted the recent theories of British economist John Maynard Keynes, who argued that technically advanced economies would need permanent budget deficits or other measures (such as redistribution of income away from the wealthy) to stimulate consumption of goods and to maintain full employment. It was the reduction of federal spending that these advisers viewed as the cause of the recession.

    FDR found these arguments compelling in the wake of the Recession. In his Annual Message to Congress on January 3, 1938, President Roosevelt declared his intention to seek funding for massive government spending without tax increases, and he challenged fiscal conservatives who offered no compelling alternatives during that time of national economic crisis:

  • Bookfest On Book TV and the Mall: A Weekend of Literature and Authors

    The 12th Library of Congress National Book Festival is part of a larger Library of Congress “Celebration of the Book” in 2012 and 2013. The celebration encompasses several events and an exhibition, which opened this past June in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, featuring “Books That Shaped America.” 

    If you can’t attend as we are unable to, remember that C-Span’s BookTV is holding approximately fifteen and a half hours of coverage on both Saturday and Sunday, September 22 and 23: 

    Library of Congress Bookfest poster

    Renowned authors US Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, David and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Jeff Kinney, Gail Tsukiyama, Susan Hertog, Lien-Hang Nguyen and Christopher Paolini will join a speakers’ lineup of more than 100 authors, including Mario Vargas Llosa, T.C. Boyle, Geraldine Brooks, Patricia Cornwell, Jeffrey Eugenides and poet Nikky Finney at the 12th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival, on Saturday, Sept. 22, and Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012, between 9th and 14th streets on the National Mall. The event, free and open to the public, will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday and from noon to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, rain or shine.

    Other authors and poets slated to appear at the festival include Bob Balaban, Donna Britt, Lois McMaster Bujold, Robert Caro, Stephen L. Carter, Sandra Cisneros, Michael Connelly, Junot Diaz, Thomas Friedman, John Green, Joy Harjo, Steve Inskeep, Walter Isaacson, Jewel, Philip Levine, Mike Lupica, Lois Lowry, David Maraniss, Melissa Marr, Walter Dean Myers, Mary Pope Osborne, Chris Raschka, Marilynne Robinson, Lisa Scottoline, Jean Edward Smith, R.L. Stine, Elizabeth Dowling Taylor, Susan Tejada, Craig Thompson, Colson Whitehead and Daniel Yergin.

    The 2012 National Book Festival will feature authors, poets and illustrators in several pavilions, including two on Sunday only: Sci Fi/Fantasy/Graphic Novels and Special Presentations. Festival-goers can attend talks by their favorite poets and authors, purchase books and get books signed, have photos taken with characters from children’s television shows and participate in a variety of activities. An estimated 200,000 people attended the festival in 2011.

    Details about the Library of Congress National Book Festival can be found on its website at www.loc.gov/bookfest/.

     “The book’s role in passing knowledge from person to person, from generation to generation, is unique and irreplaceable,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.

    Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature, has used his writing to oppose authoritarianism and to condemn societies that fetter personal freedom. His works include “The Time of the Hero” (1963), “The Green House” (1966), “Conversation in the Cathedral” (1969), “The War of the End of the World” (1987), “The Storyteller” (1987) and “The Dream of the Celt” (2010). In the early 1970s Vargas Llosa began to advocate democracy and the free market. In the late 1980s he ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of Peru, recorded in his memoir “A Fish in the Water” (1993).

  • Elaine Soloway’s Caregiving Series: Grateful He’s a Tightwad

    I’m in the audience of a medical conference on Frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) and Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA), little-known illnesses to most, sadly familiar to me. The auditorium is filled with caregivers, and members of the healthcare field.

    Every since my husband was diagnosed in 2009, I’ve become well-versed on the PPA version of the condition. But I figure there’s always more to learn, so here I sit hoping to catch news of some miracle cure.antique piggy bank

    I listen to speaker after speaker. Yes, awareness is building. Yes, research continues. But, no, no hope yet for reversal of Tommy’s loss of speech. I slump in my seat, discouraged. 

    A speaker steps on stage to introduce the topic of bvFTD. My attention sharpens; this version is new to me. I learn that the “bv” that precedes FTD stands for “behavior variant.” Those burdened with those added initials, “can experience excessive spending with a lack of awareness of its implications,” she says.

    Then, hands are raised in the audience, microphones are passed, and the horror stories begin — of loved ones’ shoplifting, impulsive buying, and falling prey to Internet swindlers.

    “I came home and there was a boat in my driveway,” says one caregiver who has risen to her feet.

    The microphone goes to a man who volunteers, “She bought a new car, never discussed it with me.” 

    I overhear a woman seated in my row who says to someone on her right, “My husband sent money to Nigerian scammers, and when I stopped it, they started harassing me.”

    And there was more: sweepstakes, mail orders, contests, door-to-door salespeople, lotteries; all spilled out as examples of bvFTD misery. 

    “My God,” I say too loudly. To myself, I think, even if my husband could still talk, or use computers, he’d never get bvFTD because he’s a tightwad. 

    As I lean back in the cushioned seat, I recall a scene that supports my logic.

    “I like it,” Tommy had said as he stared at the new Timex I fastened on his wrist. 

    “You do?” I said. I stood back, hands on hips, and studied him as he twisted it upright so its white face was easily visible.

    I was pleased at my husband’s reaction because this watch, which I had purchased at Nordstrom’s for $65, replaced the Pulsar he had worn for 40 years. 

  • Asking the Question: Have You Ever Used a Government Social Program?

    Through ways both subtle and obvious, government touches the lives of most Americans. There are both indirect social programs, such as the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction and the Earned Income Tax Credit — which are in a sense “hidden” in the tax code — as well as direct and highly visible programs such as Social Security and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. But as scholars at Cornell University point out in a 2012 paper, “We know remarkably little about how people experience public policies and whether they are even aware of or credit government‘s role in providing them.”home mortgage interest deduction

    Of course, government social programs in general have become politically radioactive in the past few decades. That has not always been the case. The Cornell scholars point to a 1994 study on the genealogy of the word “dependency” in American culture; the study establishes that language around the American welfare state was once more benign but has become increasingly fraught with negative meaning. The 2012 Cornell paper, “Who Says They Have Ever Used A Government Social Program? The Role of Policy Visibility” (PDF), analyzes survey data from the 2008 Social and Governmental Issues and Participation Study. It asked a random national sample of 1,000 Americans about their views on government programs and compared it to their actual use of specific programs over their lifetimes.

    The findings include:

    • Among the 21 federal social programs asked about, respondents on average had taken advantage of 4.47 programs. Seventy-three percent had accessed at least one direct program, and 87% had used an indirect program. Only 4% said they had not utilized at least one program, either direct or indirect.
    • As for indirect programs — what the scholars refer to as “submerged policies,” which have lower visibility among the citizenry — respondents used an average of 2.53 programs. These included the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction; the HOPE and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits; Child and Dependent Care Tax Credits; 529 (Qualified Tuition Program) or Coverdell Education Savings Account (education IRAs); the Earned Income Tax Credit; and “usage of student loans and employer subsidized health and retirement benefits.”
      • When asked whether they had “ever used a government social program,” however, the majority responded that they had not. Among those who said “no,” the average number of government programs they had actually used was 3.8. Only 5% of that group, it turned out, actually did not use a government program of any kind. For those who acknowledged accessing programs, the average used was 5.3.

  • Are You Part of the 47% Who Pay No Federal Income Tax? If You’re the Average Retired Senior – Most Probably, Yes

    Romney says that “these are people who pay no income tax,” but they are people “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.”

    The Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan research ‘think tank’ prepared a report in 2011 that discusses the numbers of those who actually do not pay federal individual income tax. 

    Rachel M. Johnson, Jim Nunns, Jeff Rohaly, Eric Toder, Roberton Williams

    Published: July 27, 2011

    Availability:
     PDF |  Printer-Friendly Version 

    Tax Policy Center: Why Some Tax Units Pay No Income Tax   

    Abstract

    About 46 percent of American households will pay no federal individual income tax in 2011, roughly half of them because of structural features of the income tax that provide basic exemptions for subsistence level income and for dependents. The other half are nontaxable because tax expenditures — special provisions in the tax code that benefit selected taxpayers or activities — wipe out tax liabilities and, in the case of refundable credits, yield net payments from the government. Provisions that benefit senior citizens and low-income working families with children particularly affect households with income under $50,000 but other factors make higher-income households nontaxable.

    The text below is an excerpt from the complete document. Read the entire report in PDF format.

    Just 54 percent of all tax units will pay federal individual income tax in 2011, leaving about 46 percent paying no federal income tax or receiving a net refund. The significant fraction of tax units that do not pay income tax has become a topic of public debate. Some commentators have suggested that the large share paying no income tax is mostly the result of tax expenditures (sometimes referred to as “loopholes” or “tax earmarks”). If that were so, nearly all tax units would pay income tax under a reformed income tax with no tax expenditures. In fact, however, even with all tax expenditures repealed, standard income tax provisions that exempt a basic amount of income would still leave many units nontaxable.

    These standard income tax provisions include personal exemptions for taxpayers and dependents and the standard deduction. These provisions are part of the basic progressive income tax structure that intend to exempt subsistence levels of income from tax and to adjust for differences in ability to pay based on family size.

    Of all nontaxable units, half would still owe no tax in 2011 if all tax expenditures were repealed and only these standard income tax provisions applied. The other half owes no tax because of tax expenditures. Those proportions vary across income categories. Virtually all nontaxable units in the lowest income group pay no tax because of the standard income tax provisions alone, but this share diminishes rapidly with income and nearly all nontaxable units with incomes above $30,000 pay no tax because of tax expenditures (see chart 1 and table 1).

    End of excerpt. The entire report with graphs and footnotes is available in PDF format.

  • The Ever-Shifting Sea Ice: Arctic Drilling Postponed Until 2013

    As Royal Dutch Shell announced today that it would postpone its Arctic oil drilling operations until 2013, the Center for American Progress released the following statement from Michael Conathan, Director of Ocean Policy:arctic polar bear

    “Ever-shifting sea ice and technical challenges have proven too much for Shell, bearing out predictions that the Arctic is simply too volatile to allow for safe drilling operations. Shell’s inability to get its own equipment in order, despite a massive investment of time and money, should give pause to any company with similar plans, and the same challenges will remain next year. Until we develop adequate safeguards and sufficient response infrastructure to manage and support drilling operations, the Arctic should remain off limits to drilling.”

    As offshore oil drilling edges ever closer to becoming a reality in the Arctic Ocean, the Center for American Progress examines the region’s lack of readiness in the event of a spill in its recent video presentation:

    Editor’s Note,  part of Shell Oil’s statement :

    “The time required to repair the dome, along with steps we have taken to protect local whaling operations and to ensure the safety of operations from ice floe movement, have led us to revise our plans for the 2012-2013 exploration program. In order to lay a strong foundation for operations in 2013, we will forgo drilling into hydrocarbon zones this year. Instead, we will begin as many wells, known as ‘top holes,’ as time remaining in this season allows. The top portion of the wells drilled in the days and weeks ahead will be safely capped and temporarily abandoned this year, in accordance with regulatory requirements. We look forward to the final receipt of our drilling permits for the multi-year exploration program upon the successful testing and deployment of the Arctic Containment System.“

  • Colors of the Universe: Chinese Hardstone Carvings

    By Val Castronovo

    Tucked away in a discreet corner on the third floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a small room devoted to the display of some 75 Chinese hardstone carvings, all dating from the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) when the craft experienced a resurgence due to imperial patronage.lion with cub

    Curators have culled the works from the museum’s permanent collection, but most have never been seen before. Colors of the Universe, on view until January 6, 2013, in the Florence and Herbert Irving Galleries for Chinese Decorative Arts, pays homage to an ancient Chinese art form — the art of carving polished gemstones such as jade, malachite, carnelian, coral and lapis lazuli, to name a few. The pieces, some decorative, some utilitarian, are mostly small and depict animals, figures (Buddhas and Daoist immortals, in addition to ordinary mortals), fruits and everyday objects (bowls, vases, ink pots, brush holders and the like).

    The carved imagery is highly stylized, drawing on traditional Chinese motifs such as mountains, lotus leaves, dragons, pomegranates, and, most distinctively, the hand of the Buddha (with gorgeous long, idealized fingers). Symbols abound: the peach, signifying longevity, is one favorite motif and is featured in several pieces, notably Water Dropper in the Shape of a Crane (agate), in which the crane grasps a peach branch in its elegant, elongated beak.

    The jade pieces, too, are of exceptional beauty and variety, including both nephrite and jadeite and ranging in color from pearly white (Buddha’s Hand) to emerald green (Elephant and Two Boys), with a multitude of shades in between (Horse Carrying Books).

    Visitors should take special note of two mother-and-child carvings: the exquisite Daoist Immortal and a Boy, crafted from brilliant red coral, and the charming Lion with a Cub, made from lapis lazuli imported from Afghanistan.

    Like everything in this show, they dazzle.

    ©2012 Val Castronovo for SeniorWomen.com

    Objects at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

    Lion and Cub, China, 18th century; medium lapis lazuli. Gift of Heber R. Bishop, 1902

    Elephant and Two Boys, China, 19th century; medium Kosmochlor jadeitite. Bequest of Edmund C. Converse, 1921