Greatest Events Of Wwii In Colour

[Lorna Schildt]

Froma young age, I've been obsessed with colour. I've always been drawn to colourful objects, one of the most memorable events of my childhood was visiting Colourscape in Salisbury in 1987. Shown here, my family wandered around inside a giant inflatable structure with colours so bright and vivid I thought they were going to burst my eyes. It's well worth a visit if it's near you

I've never really liked black and white photography, or movies because I think they're lacking so much of the beauty of the world. It can be used to good effect in films like Schindler's List, but black and white images don't feel real to me. I've just finished watching a series on Netflix called World War II In Colour and it makes the events seem so much more immediate.

Colour theory is an entire subject in its own right, going all the way back to Isaac Newton's first descriptions of the spectra that he saw when shining sunlight through a glass prism. If you find it hard to distinguish blue, indigo and violet as three separate colours in a rainbow you're not alone - it's believed that Newton chose seven colours to fit with the seven notes of the musical scale rather than because that's how many he could identify.

Most humans can distinguish around seven million colours using our three colour receptors (red, green and blue), but some animals like the mantis shrimp can see all the way from the deep ultra-violet all the way up into the far red (and even polarised light) using their 12-16 different types of colour receptors. Listen to the wonderful Radiolab podcast on colours for more details.

There are lots of ways to model colours, but the three most common are Red-Green-Blue (RGB) used in computer screens, Red-Yellow-Blue (RYB) used by artists and in most theories of colour, and Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black (CMYK) used in print. Note the difference between RGB where adding all the colours together makes white (called additive) and the other two where it makes black (called subtractive). RGB also has a much wider range of colours that it can display, which is called the gamut. All of these colour models have a much smaller gamut than the range of colours that the human eye can perceive.

Colour theory provides some simple schemes for how colours complement and harmonise with each other. They work by placing geometric shapes over the colour wheel and can be used to create a range of moods.

These range from complementary which gives a high contrast between the two colours, analagous which is a more harmonious scheme, triadic which is also high in contrast and works best with one main colour and two secondary colours, split complementary which is often described as having less tension than regular complementary, and tetradic which often also has one dominant colour.

One of my favourite websites for picking colours is COLOURLovers. They have over a million user-submitted colour palettes and the search allows you to narrow that down in helpful ways. Two of my favourite palettes at the moment are Thought Provoking and cheer up emo kid. We very rarely use an entire palette for a project, preferring to take colours from a range of palettes or use them as a starting point to create our own.

This is a common technique that we use to find colours for a palette. When we met with the owner of the Old Post Office to discuss building her website, she had a nice blue and brown tablecloth on the table where we sat. I snapped a picture and used it in the colour scheme.

I'll sometimes start with an image that is completely unrelated to the project we're working on, but which contains nice colours. The finishers of a particular running race here in Valencia last year received a wonderfully colourful t-shirt from which we used colours to create the backgrounds for the Animo Flute and Piano Duo website.

The stripes on an old version of the Healthy Gay Cornwall website we run for Cornwall Council came from a napkin that we bought in Habitat! I have a whole folder full of images that I think will make nice colour schemes that I have yet to use.

A while ago I found a game that could have been tailor-made for me: I Love Hue, described by its developers as a gentle journey into colour and perception. As well as being intensely relaxing, I find it a great source of inspiration for colour palettes. Play is on a board made of tiles of varying gradients, which are randomly jumbled. The player has to move pieces to the original gradient.

A last and very important consideration is the cultural values associated with a particular colour. For example, western cultures see red as a colour of passion, excitement and danger, while eastern and Asian cultures often see red as the colour of happiness and luck - red wedding dresses aren't uncommon in some areas, which would look very strange to most Europeans. Orange makes most Americans think of Hallowe'en, but this is a sacred colour among some Asian religions. In Thailand yellow is the colour of the king, whereas in Latin America this colour is associated with mourning. I could write a whole blog post just about cultural differences in colour appreciation!

How did the Roosevelt and Delano families make their money?

The Roosevelt family was New York based and involved in commerce, banking and insurance, shipbuilding and seafaring, urban real estate and landholding. Although a lawyer by training, James Roosevelt's interests were in business where he was a respected figure in the field of finance, transportation (railroads), and philanthropy.

Was FDR an only child?

FDR was the only child of James Roosevelt and his second wife, Sara Delano. Franklin had an older half brother, James Roosevelt Roosevelt (1854-1927), born to his father and his first wife, Rebecca Howland, who died in 1876.

When did FDR's father die?

James Roosevelt was born in 1828 and died on December 8, 1900 in New York City at the age of 72. Franklin was eighteen and a freshman at Harvard College.

When did FDR's mother die?

Sara Delano Roosevelt was born in 1854 and died on September 7, 1941 at the family home "Springwood," in Hyde Park, New York at the age of 87. Franklin died less than four years later.

Where did FDR go to school?

In September 1896, at age fourteen, Franklin entered Groton School, a small boarding school in Massachusetts which prepared sons of wealthy and prominent families for college. Before entering Groton, Franklin had a series of governesses and tutors.

What was FDR's first job?

In the autumn of 1907 Franklin became an apprentice lawyer with the Wall Street firm of Carter, Ledyard and Milburn. It was a typical arrangement at the time-no salary the first year and then a small one to start.

What was FDR's first public office?

FDR was elected New York State Senator from Dutchess, Columbia and Putnam counties in 1910 and re-elected for a second term in 1912. He served only a few months of the second term before President Woodrow Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913.

Was FDR ever in the military?

No. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Franklin held the civilian post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He was eager to enlist, but President Wilson urged against it, citing his important service in the Navy Department.

When did FDR run for the Vice-presidency?

In 1920 the Democratic Party nominated Ohio Governor James M. Cox for President and Franklin D. Roosevelt for Vice President. They were defeated by Republicans Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge.

Who was Lucy Mercer?

Lucy Page Mercer, daughter of a well-connected Washington family living in reduced financial circumstances, was hired as Eleanor Roosevelt's social secretary in 1914 to assist with the heavy social responsibilities of the wife of a sub-cabinet secretary. In September 1918, Eleanor discovered love letters from Lucy to Franklin and Eleanor offered Franklin a divorce, which he declined for political reasons. In the end, Eleanor agreed to preserve the marriage and Franklin promised never to see Lucy again.

In 1920, Lucy Mercer married Winthrop Rutherfurd, a wealthy widower. Despite his promise to Eleanor, Franklin and Lucy continued to maintain contact. Lucy was present at the Little White House, Warm Springs, Georgia, when President Roosevelt died in 1945.

When did FDR die and what was the cause of his death?

President Roosevelt died of cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1945 at the Little White House, his cottage at Warm Springs, Georgia, the rehabilitation center for the treatment of polio that he founded.

What events and ceremonies occurred during FDR's funeral?

On the morning of April 13, 1945, the Presidents' casket was carried to the railroad station at Warm Springs, Georgia, accompanied by a procession of 2,000 soldiers from Fort Benning. Moving no faster than 35 miles per hour, the train passed through the Carolinas and Virginia, arriving in Washington, DC on April 14. All along the way sorrowful citizens turned out to pay their respects to the passing funeral train. President Truman, members of the immediate family, and high-ranking government officials met the funeral train at the Union Station.

Full military honors were rendered in the procession from the railroad station to the White House through the streets lined with units of the nation's armed forces and the grieving public. Behind the casket two flag bearers bore the American flag and the presidential standard. At the White House, the casket was placed in the East Room where the funeral services were conducted at 4:00 p.m. The Episcopal Funeral Service lasted twenty-three minutes.

That evening the casket was removed from the White House and taken in a small procession of soldiers and police to the Union Station for the trip to Hyde Park, New York. Again mournful citizens turned out to witness the passing train. The morning of April 15 the funeral train arrived at a siding on the Hudson River four miles from the Roosevelt home. The casket was transferred to a gun carriage and driven to the Roosevelt estate along a route lined with soldiers, sailors and marines. The caisson was preceded by a military band and a battalion of West Point cadets and followed by limousines containing President Truman and the Roosevelt family. Full Military honors were rendered from the train to the burial site. Great numbers of ordinary Americans young and old traveled to Hyde Park to attend the funeral.

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