Adolfo Farsari (1841–1898) was an Italian photographer based in Yokohama,
Japan. Following a brief military career, including service in the American
Civil War, he became a successful entrepreneur and commercial photographer.
His photographic work was highly regarded, particularly his hand-coloured
portraits and landscapes, which he sold mostly to foreign residents and
visitors to the country. Farsari's images were widely distributed, presented
or mentioned in books and periodicals, and sometimes recreated by artists in
other media; they shaped foreign perceptions of the people and places of
Japan and to some degree affected how Japanese saw themselves and their
country. His studio – the last notable foreign-owned studio in Japan – was
one of the country's largest and most prolific commercial photographic
firms. Largely due to Farsari's exacting technical standards and his
entrepreneurial abilities it had a significant influence on the development
of photography in Japan.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Farsari>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1327:
Fourteen-year old Edward III became King of England, but the country was
ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_III_of_England>
1554:
Jesuit missionaries José de Anchieta and Manoel da Nóbrega established a
mission at São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, which grew to become São
Paulo, Brazil.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Paulo>
1755:
Russian Empress Elizabeth issued a decree ordering the establishment of what
is now Lomonosov Moscow State University (main building pictured), today the
largest university in Russia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lomonosov_Moscow_State_University>
1919:
The Paris Peace Conference, convened to build a lasting peace after World
War I, approved the proposal to create the League of Nations.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations>
1924:
The first Winter Olympic Games opened at the foot of Mont Blanc in Chamonix,
Haute-Savoie, France, attracting more than 200 athletes from 16 nations,
competing in 16 events.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Olympic_Games>
2006:
Three independent observing campaigns announced the discovery of
OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, a super-Earth extrasolar planet 21,500 ± 3,300 light
years away from Earth near the center of the Milky Way.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
statutory (adj):
Of, relating to, enacted or regulated by a written law
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/statutory>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one,
but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie. --W. Somerset Maugham
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham>