text:
Talk:Lynn, Massachusetts

City of firsts
I feel that as a native, I ought to try and explain that conspicuously small collection of "Firsts" that the city is supposedly known for. In the very early 90s, the city of Lynn created an advertising campaign to offset the city's stagnating image as a depressed, crime-ridden satellite urban area. This was the "City Of Firsts" campaign. Among the numerous Lynn Firsts that were touted were:

 * Lydia E. Pinkham - First woman in advertising (and first woman in mass-marketing)
 * First baseball game played under artificial light
 * First dance academy in the U.S.
 * First tannery in the U.S.
 * First air mail delivery in the U.S.

Unfortunately, after a few short years, the majority of these claims were found to be inaccurate. For example, the first air mail delivery in the U.S. apparently occured on Long Island (link), a year before Lynn's claimed event. The first baseball game under artificial light apparently occured in Indiana (link). And on top of it, Lydia Pinkham (for whom there is a building named in town) turned out to be a snake oil peddler (thanks in part to a History Channel documentary a few years later on snake oil which featured Pinkham prominently. See also Patent medicine).

The "City of Firsts!" perhaps was the start of a series of rather bad attempts by city officials and employees to improve the city. Circa 1992, the city installed false plexiglass storefronts on Union Street, in an attempt to literally cover up the nagging loss of commerce in the city's main transportation square. As of 2002 most of the 6 original false fronts were still there, quite ironically covered in pigeon poop and in disrepair. (Not surprisingly, the storefront idea was conceived by a city worker who lived in the semi-affluent neighboring town of Swampscott, Massachusetts.) A large, new-fab, multi-level parking structure built by the MBTA at the commuter rail station near downtown in the late 1980s likewise never materialized into a draw for local commerce. The available commercial space in the structure was instead rented by the nearby community college; and despite being free, the lot is never remotely near capacity. Progress made in turning Lynn in to a technological center for the North Shore in the late 1990s and early 2000s was stunted by the burst of the dot-com bubble. See Lynn Cyber District.

Despite being a developed urban center in close proximity to Boston, Massachusetts, Lynn has no lodging hotels. A short-lived Days Inn at the very entrance to the city closed circa 1992; nearly ten years later the prime-location lot remained untouched save for rampant overgrowth. On the bright side, Lynn's main highway, the Lynnway (MA. Rt. 1A), rivals the Automile in car dealerships and car services, and leads to one of the better looking parts of town down by the waterfront on the way to Nahant, Massachusetts and Swampscott. Unfortunately, due to a perennial problem of heavy algae accumulation on the beach baking under the summer sun, this is seasonally one of the worst-smelling parts of town.

Lynn's dubiously proud history as the shoe-making capital of the early American colonies is not disputed (except that this legacy was partially shared by Saugus, Massachusetts and Danvers, Massachusetts). Lynn also boasts the largest city-owned park (the 2,200 acre Lynn Woods) in the state and the second largest in the U.S.

While we're talking about Lynn's firsts: For many years in the late 70s and 80s, Lynn residents lamented that Lynn was the first (then only) city where a McDonalds had ever closed (at corner of Union and Baldwin streets; the building still stands today, looking much like a 70s McDonalds). This was repeatedly proven to be untrue, but the mass depression from a faltering commercial economy kept the myth alive for some time.

Another First not included in the city's pride campaign was the establishment of the first Church of Christian Science by city resident and Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy. The Mary Baker Eddy House is a minor city attraction. KeithTyler
 * Are you sure about the Lynnway there? It doesn't run along the beach; that's Lynn Shore Drive, which isn't part of Rte. 1A but does smell bad in the summer. AJD 18:24, 19 May 2004 (UTC)
 * That's true... Edited... I wonder if any of this Lynn rambling is appropriate for the main page. KeithTyler 19:29, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

Lynn Woods
[addition] Lynn Woods or Lynn Reservation is the largest reservation in the United States. If they continue to build up of Lynnfield Street, there won't be very much Woods or Reservation left for Lynn's Wilf Life. It seems that Lynn's Reservation is being Protected anymore.

I too am from Lynn and have always heard that Lynn Woods is the second largest city owned park in the United States but recently found this article on the net. I am now thinking the "the second largest city owned park" moniker can also be chalked up with the ficticious "city of firsts" brandings as well.

http://www.honan.net/2004/06/park-pride-nations-largest-urban-parks.php

History
Who founded the initial European settlement? Were they part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony? -- Beland 01:26, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Resettlement?
What does the article mean about "re-settlement"? I'm also curious why the location was chosen and why manufacturing was big. Is there a nearby source of water power? -- Beland (talk) 17:02, 26 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Automation came very late to the industry. — Llywelyn II   15:41, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Revised
"Lynn Lynn the City Of Sin, You Never Come Out The Way You Came In" lol, there was always an exit out of Lynn but the Sin part was when you passed THRU Lynn a person was supposedily not the same when they left Lynn. Either from drunkiness or whatever that person came thru Lynn to pick up, lol. True Story, Massachusetts was an Indian Name and Indian Land, if you're interested it's a good read. Does *anyone* have any references or sites for "Lynn Lynn City of Sin"? I know it's real, and I know nearly everyone within a 100 mile radius of Lynn knows it, but damned if I can prove it with an external reference. It's days like this when I really hate the WP:OR policy. - Keith D. Tyler ¶ (AMA) 19:16, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I can't remember the name of the book, but that whole paragraph is all wrong. From a book in the gift shop at the Lynn Historical Society, "Lynn, Lynn, city of sin. You never come out the way you went in. Ask for water, they give you gin. It's the darndest city I've ever been in." The saying refers to a once bustling harbor, and the sailors that would wander onto Summer St., which at the time, boasted around 100 bars in a row that the sailors would frequent. Debauchery was common-place along that strip. [unsigned]

 * I've never heard the "sin" one. Though, born and raised in Dorchester, lived in Braintree, Cambridge and Plymouth. I never visited Lynn. But, when just a small child, my mother used to sit me on her knees, facing her, and bounce her legs up and down (as to "Trot" lol), while holding my wrists, and would sing this song (Paddycake tune) Trot Trot to Boston, Trot trot to Lynn -- although, her words, and pronunciation were; "Trut trut to Boston, trut trut to Lynn, watch out little (Jeeny) before ya fall in." Then she would split her legs apart so I'd "fall in". Just a bit of nostalgia. :) I continued the "tradition" with my son, and he loved it. I also played the "game" with other children and they loved it. It was a hit. I thought my mother was a genius, as I thought she made it up herself (I guess she did, in a way, as she used different words and made a game of it, like a very short and crude amusment ride). Kids would beg me to play the Trut Trut game, as I did with mum. - Jeeny Talk 23:31, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * It seems a native will never escape the "Sin" one. At least twice since moving to Seattle I've had it recited at me after admitting where I'm from. As for "Trot, Trot," it seems to have a bit of history. - Keith D. Tyler ¶ (AMA) 18:32, 22 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I've added the "City of Sin" part. Was shocked it wasn't there before.  Although as far as I know, it's tongue in cheek at this point, haven't heard much about about Lynn lately.  Just Boston. - MSTCrow 01:28, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
 * That's because nobody cares about it Crow. Get a life.

Lynn - Southampton connection
Removing this section because it's wording isn't backed by its cites or by a couple other sources I've found. By 1640, the population of Lynn consisted of about 40 families. In that year, after being reprimanded or "straitened" by Gov. Winthrop, the entire population of Lynn abandoned the site of Lynn and moved to Long Island where they established the towns of South Hampton and Southold, bringing all of the records from the town of Lynn with them. The town of Lynn was subsequently repopulated by new settlers.

The pastor of the community that moved from Lynn to Long Island was the Rev. Abraham Pierson. Around 1646, Rev. Pierson and about 20 families relocated again, moving from Long Island to Branford, New Haven Colony. In 1666, after the New Haven Colony was merged with the Connecticut Colony, Rev. Pierson and his colleague Robert Treat of Milford moved to New Jersey where they established the community of New Ark, the site of the present-day city of Newark. Rev. Pierson's son, Rev. Abraham Pierson, Jr. moved back to Connecticut in 1691 where, in 1701, he became the first rector of the Collegiate School, known today as Yale College.

The cited source (History of Long Island), available on Google Books here, doesn't reflect the assertion made above. There is no indication that the entire population of Lynn abandoned it to go and found settlements in CT and LI. The term "straitened" means simply restricted in potential for growth. While this can be a deliberate restriction imposed as a penalty, there isn't indication that this was the case. What it does say is: "In Winthrop's Journal, he states that about forty families, finding themselves straitened, left the town of Lynn with the design of settling a new plantation. They invited Mr. Abraham Pierson, of Boston, to become their minister...." Firstly, it only says that Winthrop recorded (as he did many things about the MBC) that forty families "found themselves straitened", but not that he had anything to do with it, and that they decided to go found a new settlement elsewhere. Also, it indicates that Pierson was not from Lynn.

At, we see a different wording: "The common statement derived from Cotton Mather is, that between thirty and forty families in Lynn, Massachusetts, finding themselves straited for land, came over to Long Island and effected a settlement." The wording here suggests not that Lynners had been reprimanded and left in exile, but that some families decided there wasn't enough available land in Lynn for them; so the venturing into new settlements in CT and LI weren't about exile but about expansionism and homesteading.

Likewise, History of Essex County Massachusetts available at Google Books, describes that a number of deed issues with the natives had led to some unsavory conflicts, so perhaps (OR) there was limited undeeded land available for the English. As to the Lynners who left to found settlements in CT and LI, it refers to them as "restless" or "enterprising", not exiled or ostracised.

No source indicates that the entire population of Lynn abandoned the town, whether by force or not, or that it was ever repopulated or resettled.- Keith D. Tyler ¶ 16:50, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

The links, the links
No, I'm not referring to the golf courses. Read this for WP's concept of an acceptable link: WP:ELNO. The COC link has to go because it is all advertising. The Lynn Item was a tough one. However, the item is not primarily about Lynn, it is about the news, granted much of it happening in Lynn. The fact that someone might have failed to turn his vehicle at the end of Eastern Avenue, run it into King's Beach, and was immediately poisoned to death by the sewage there, is not encyclopedic information about Lynn, even though those places are in Lynn. Similarly, if an elderly woman dies of asphyxiation from the smell trying to get to Nahant, that is not encyclopedic, either. If you say much about the item in the article and you want to list an issue as a reference to it, that seems to me to be OK. Or, if the Item has its own article, the newspaper might be an official site there; certainly it would belong there. I think it might. Meanwhile, these disallowed links have to go, and the others should be properly formatted, say with template:cite web.Dave (talk) 21:43, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

Notable residents
I'm pretty sure this list has to go. It isn't encyclopedic. We can't list every person of note living in every city in the world. This would not be an encyclopedia, it would be a global telephone book without the telephone numbers. What's the point of it? Someone wants to know something about Lynn, Massachusetts, and all he can find is a list of persons who consider themselves notable and live in Lynn. For the persons actually from Lynn, we have a category to cover that. And suppose a person moves. What, are going to take in hand checking the lists and making sure they all have not moved? I am sure you will agree, this is absurd. It falls into the category of lists of trivia. I'm going to do a little more study of the WP policy and then I think this list will have to go.Dave (talk) 23:02, 9 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It's back. — Llywelyn II   15:41, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Recreation
I am questioning the Great Stew Race’s relevancy here. This race only occurs once a year and does not have any legitimate coverage in any online media. Removed. Charger2 (talk) 04:26, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Notable natives deletion
I agree with Dave's previous comment on the Notable Residents section. Since their comment, the section was renamed to "Notable natives", but the list was unwieldy (40+) and seemed to go against the principal of having article be a summary on a topic. I have removed this section. Charger2 (talk) 03:23, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
 * It's back. — Llywelyn II   15:41, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Lynn (Essex Co.) Acadian Connection
During the early-late 1900s, ferry service ran from Nova Scotia to Boston. A large number of Nova Scotias, particularly those of Acadian descent, relocated to Massachusetts. Many settled in Essex County and more so, the community of Lynn. Even today, there are many "French Acadian" family names in the area. I am just wondering if there has been any research on this subject. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.166.4.1 (talk) 16:06, 14 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Presumably the 'French Acadian' family names are just the Quebeckers who came down when automation allowed the mill owners to replace the locals with cheaper workers. — Llywelyn II   15:41, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Timeline of Lynn, Massachusetts
What is missing from the recently created city timeline article? Please add relevant content. Contributions welcome. Thank you. -- M2545 (talk) 06:51, 30 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Currently, all four of the major events in Lynn's 1760–1904 history are entirely missing. (Counting Douglass's book, 4/5ths are missing.) See below. — Llywelyn II   15:56, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Largest Employer
What is the largest employer in Lynn, officially? I would guess that it is the General Electric Company's aviation engine plant, BUT the largest employer in Essex County is said to be the Massachusetts General Hospital!24.121.195.165 (talk) 07:09, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Discussion of First Electrified Streetcar ("Trolley") in Massachusetts
Suddenly today there appears to be a kerfuffle over the status of the Highland Circuit streetcar line of the Lynn and Boston Street Railway even though there are two sources cited which pin the start date of the electric service at November 19, 1888: There are NO earlier dates of electrification for any streetcar on List of streetcar systems in the United States and I have extensively researched the history behind the Highland Circuit line being electrified first in the state and have consulted with transportation industry experts for verification.
 * The Electrical World, December 8, 1888, page 303
 * Electric Power, January 1889, page 21

What's the resolution here? Stefan01902 (talk) 23:30, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

I added a new reference just now, to the official City Of Lynn "About Lynn / A Brief History Of Lynn" which reads:
 * The first Electric Trolley in the state ran from Lynn in 1888

Stefan01902 (talk) 23:40, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

In the case of the first electric streetcar, multiple sources refer to Lynn as home to the first electric trolley in the entire United States:
 * Street Railway Bulletin, Volume 12 page 465

 * House Committee on Labor

but in fact other U.S. systems had been electrified prior. (Those first-in-nation overstatements have dates of service inception which do correlate with other sources, and if the scope of "first" is applied to Massachusetts specifically then otherwise those sources are solid.) Stefan01902 (talk) 00:43, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Any school ever on Pearl (now Baldwin) Street?? Ever?
Both Google Maps and Apple Maps show the "Cobbet Junior High School" at 50 Baldwin St Lynn, MA 01902. The current Lynn school is the Cobbet Elementary School http://www.lynnschools.org/ourschools_cobbet.shtml and the English High School (1892 building) was rebuilt in 1924 to be the Cobbett Junior High School (note different spelling).

Was there ever a school, of any grade level, on Baldwin Street (formerly Pearl Street) ???

I will ask this on the Lynn Public Schools Talk if needed. Stefan01902 (talk) 16:18, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

2021 additions to History
Just FYI I'm planning on also adding to the 21st Century history about the downtown expansion / development (which includes the FD Park) quite a bit more. The FD Park mention is just the start. Stefan01902 (talk) 23:34, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

Transportation too condensed?
Condensing the Transportation section regarding the ferry service makes sense. I feel that dropping the electrification plan completely is a bit too much though. I think it's important to call out how the rail corridor to and including Lynn involves EJ and underserved population issues. Thoughts? Stefan01902 (talk) 14:01, 30 August 2021 (UTC)

More citations needed for History??
Your addition of the Moresources template doesn't come with any discussion here.

This edit:
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lynn,_Massachusetts&oldid=1059472596

seems to be in error, as the History section has (in my opinion) a large number of citations and numerous links to related pages which in turn have validation.

Please explain why you added this template, or I will remove it per Help:Maintenance_template_removal. Stefan01902 (talk) 16:53, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * OK. I acted in good faith but I accept that others disagree with the tag in question. I will remove it. (May add some individual cite tags.) 107.127.46.11 (talk) 03:08, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Added back NSCC as being in 1981 fire area.
I just added back the mention of NSCC being in the fire area of 1981 (with a proper citation) which had been removed in good faith (citation needed) April 26. I feel that mentioning that the campus is in the area of the fire helps to provide better context to the location - rather than just "at Broad and Washington Streets" which is somewhat of an understatement given the affected area. Stefan01902 (talk) 23:56, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

What's wrong with "bostonroads.com" as a citation?
I just reverted revision 1115783696 which was the removal of a reference / citation which appears perfectly valid to me.
 * http://www.bostonroads.com/roads/I-95N_MA/

What's wrong with that page as a reference? Stefan01902 (talk) 23:10, 10 January 2023 (UTC)

Cheyna Matthews
Pro soccer player is from lynn 2601:C4:8201:FEB0:902:7D32:6C4D:6484 (talk) 01:19, 23 March 2023 (UTC)
 * So? We already have two posters above asking for the entire list to be removed. I'm in favor of some small list capped at 10 or so. Alternatively, shunt the whole thing to a separate list page where it can be longer. A soccer player in any country where the sport is called soccer is almost never going to make the shorter cut. — Llywelyn II   15:41, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Sources for future article expansion
This source quoting from a book compiled by the WPA during the Great Depression could be helpfully used to expand the article. It does need to be used with a little caution, though. (For instance, it calls Thomas Bata "Charles Bata" for no apparent reason and misses the real importance of John Adam Dagyr.)

See also the new History section at Footwear since Lynn takes pride of place in the entire human saga of footery. In part:
 * Amid the Industrial Revolution, John Adam Dagyr's introduction of assembly line production[14][24] and tight quality control[25] to the "ten-footer" workshops[26] in Lynn, Massachusetts, USA, around 1760 is sometimes credited as the first shoe factory.[1] However, each step was still done by hand in a slowly optimized putting-out system.[24][27] The first mechanized systems—developed by Marc Isambard Brunel in 1810 to supply boots to the British Army amid the Napoleonic Wars—failed commercially as soon as the wars were over because the demobilized soldiers reduced the price of manual labor.[28] John Brooks Nichols's 1850 adaptation of Howe and Singer's sewing machines to handle binding uppers to soles[29] and the Surinamese immigrant Jan Ernst Matzeliger's 1880 invention of an automatic lasting machine finally allowed true industrialization, taking the productivity of individual workers from 20 or 50 pairs a day to as many as 700, halving prices,[24][30] and briefly making Lynn the center of world shoe production.[31][32] As late as 1865, most men in the industry identified in the census and city directory as general purpose "cordwainers" or "shoemakers"; by 1890, they were almost universally described as "shoe workers" or—more often—by the specific name of their work within the industry: "edgesetter", "heel trimmer", "McKay machine operator".[24] Many were replaced by cheaper immigrants;[24] the Czech Austrian Tomas Bata joined these workers at Lynn in 1904 and then returned to his own factory in Zlin, Moravia, mechanizing and rationalizing its production while guiding the factory town that developed into a garden city.

— Llywelyn II   15:41, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

City of Nonsense Firsts
(see above) while missing the three important ones not just for itself but for humanity. (Sources at Footwear, Last, and Jan Ernst Matzeliger can be checked and expanded as needed.)

1) The current article misses Welsh immigrant John Adam Dagyr and the ten footers entirely. I don't necessarily agree with the Encyclopaedia Britannica that what he set up should really be counted as the first shoe factory in the history of human civilization but, if the freakin' 2023 EB is giving you that win, I don't see why you don't at least make a note of it somewhere. Besides, the QA and putting-out systems he set up (also unmentioned and unlinked) are what began the process that not only made Lynn grow but let it take on the Philadelphia and New York cordwainers, shoemakers, and cobblers and crush them. The dependence of the early industry on protective tarriffs and also on provisioning the Southern slaves with tons of low-cost low-quality shoes through Charleston and New Orleans also goes entirely unremarked on, despite both kind of being a big deal on their own, the irony with Mr Douglass, and the importance to the war effort (and legendarily Gettysburg) of the South having never set up their own mass shoemakers.

2) The current article drones on about Lynn's not especially important relationship with electricity while entirely missing John Brooks Nichols, his adaption of Howe/Singer's sewing machine to work shoe leather, and his yielding to Howe and partnering to fund Howe's patent case instead of just enriching himself. Sure someone would have quickly done that somewhere over the next ten years or so but the fact that it was by a Lynner (Lynnian? Lynnster? Lynnmeister?) and Lynn was the first community to adopt it on a wide scale mattered, particularly cumulatively with the rest of this.

3) The current article inexplicably discusses Matzeliger in the 20th century (he was dead by then) and treats him as a token "African-American" "part" of "mechanization of the process". He had a Dutch name because he was a Surinamese American, which matters (particularly to them). If the previous editor was only trying to say black/Black, the article should just say that. (He was biracial.) He wasn't "part" of a "mechanization of the process". Over years of tinkering, he single-handedly jury rigged an automatic lasting machine the major companies hadn't been able to manage in decades of attempts, something ultimately so complex the patent office had to send someone over to see it in action just to understand what it was trying to do. On its own, that machine instantly increased production by ~14 times, halved the price of footwear, made Lynn the center of world shoe production, and—after he was obliged to sell out ⅔ of his ownership of his invention to buy the parts necessary to fully patent and market it and then sold out the rest of his rights for $15k cash in hand to have a half decent life before dying of tuberculosis—made the United Shoe Machinery Corporation an international behemoth. (Although, yes, they did keep their HQ in Beverly so... y'know... they're even worse than they seemed at first.) Yes, the guy deserves an entire copiously sourced paragraph of his own and in the right century.

Bunch of other problems with things being out of order. Someone may have been trying to keep things thematic but it needs to be roughly more chronological than it is now. Thematic things can be in other appropriate sections. Currently the "19th century" section has paragraphs that cover, respectively 1816–1858; "mid century"; 1883; 1945–2023; 1860; 1841–1848; 1866; 1889. Thematically it makes even less sense: transport and telegraphs; summer resort; early electricity; jet engines; 1860 strike (and no other and completely context free); Frederick Douglass; Mary Baker Eddy; massive 1889 fire... with not so much as a paragraph on the shoe industry that actually built the city during that century. Similarly the immigration is handled as just something that happened because it was 1890 and everyone was doing it. The removal of skilled and personal positions with reasonable hours usually from home in favor of impersonal unskilled machinery operation at all hours in centralized mills... was kind of important in that process... as was unionization and attempts at union busting. The WPA got Bata's name wrong but at least they knew to include him... which this article currently doesn't.

Per the EB, this city was the original center of shoe industrialization. Even if that's overstated, by 1900, it was the center. Dagyr belongs in and the 19th century of this town was a story of shoes and the systematic optimization of their production, not jet engines or bucolic second homes for people visiting from the "real places". Matzeliger wasn't a token African helper. He was a singular and singularly hardworking engineering genius who literally revolutionized—14× production, 50% reduced price—an industry that every human being has been involved with since the Neolithic Age. Even more than Nichols, he didn't remotely see the full value of his work (which sucks) and people at the time were crazy bigoted (see his article). At the same time, he got the patent under his own name and he still saw tens of thousands of dollars for his work ($500k+ 2023 dollars fwiw) which wasn't nothing. You can't do a bio of every Lynnifer but everyone in the town (at minimum) should know more about this guy. Also, of course, Bata, who took Matzeliger's machinery and Lynn's lessons back to Austro-Hungarian Czechia and revolutionized European shoemaking himself. — Llywelyn II   15:41, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Digital Stewardship Online
— Assignment last updated by Tyam448 (talk) 21:24, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Lynn, Massachusetts


text:
St Mary le Strand

St Mary le Strand is a Church of England church at the eastern end of the Strand in the City of Westminster, London. It lies within the Deanery of Westminster (St Margaret) within the Diocese of London. The church stands on what was until recently a traffic island to the north of Somerset House, King's College London's Strand campus, and south of Bush House (formerly the headquarters of the BBC World Service and now also part of King's College London). Although earlier churches preceded it, the present foundation was part of an extensive new church building effort in the early 1700s ("Queen Anne Churches"). It is the official church of the Women's Royal Naval Service, and has a book of remembrance for members who have died in service. The nearest tube station is Temple, with the now-closed Aldwych station nearly opposite the church. It is known as one of the two 'Island Churches', the other being St Clement Danes.

History
The church is the second to have been called St Mary le Strand, the first having been situated a short distance to the south. The date of its foundation is unclear but it was mentioned in a judgment of 1222, when it was called the Church of the Innocents, or St Mary and the Innocents. It was pulled down in 1549 by Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, to make way for Somerset House. The parishioners were promised a new church, which was never built, forcing them to move to the nearby church of St Clement Danes and afterwards to the Savoy Chapel. The site now occupied by the modern church was formerly occupied by a great maypole, which had been the scene of May Day festivities in the 16th and 17th century but was severely decayed by the early 18th century.

The new St Mary le Strand was the first of the twelve new churches built in London under the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches, at a cost of some £16,000. Construction began in February 1714 under the architect James Gibbs, being his first major project following his return from Italy. The steeple was completed in September 1717, but the church was not consecrated for use until 1 January 1724, by Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, when the Rev. John Heylyn became first rector of the rebuilt church. Bonnie Prince Charlie is alleged to have renounced his Roman Catholic faith in the church to become an Anglican during a secret visit to London in 1750. John Dickens and Elizabeth Barrow, the parents of Charles Dickens, were married here in 1809. It was restored in 1871 by Robert Jewell Withers, who removed the box pews and had them re-formed into the elegant benches with scrolling sides that one sees in the church today. The tiled floor in the nave and chancel are also his doing. The changes were met by praise, and survive to this day.

"RE-OPENING OF THE CHURCH OF ST MARY-LE-STRAND —This church, which has been closed for several months, undergoing extensive alterations and thorough restoration, was re-opened for Divine service on Sunday morning. The whole of the unsightly and inconvenient pews have been removed, and replaced by free and open seats. The chancel has been greatly improved, and the whole of the church has been re-decorated with exceeding taste. In fact, the renovated ceilings of the nave and chancel, together with the tastefully coloured walls of this beautiful church, are well worthy of an inspection by all true lovers of architecture, and reflect great credit, on the architect, Mr. R. J. Withers, of 51, Doughty street. The cost of these alterations has amounted to upwards of £1,000."

The church narrowly escaped destruction twice during the 20th century. At the start of the 20th century the London County Council proposed to demolish the church to widen the Strand; a campaign involving the artist Walter Crane succeeded in averting this, although the graveyard was obliterated and the graves moved to Brookwood Cemetery. The London Blitz of the Second World War caused much damage to the surrounding area but again the church avoided destruction, though it did suffer damage from a nearby bomb explosion.

Architecture
The architecture of St Mary le Strand proved controversial from the outset, and the architect later expressed unhappiness at the way that his plans had been altered by the Commissioners. According to Gibbs, the church was originally intended to be an Italianate structure with a small campanile over the west end and no steeple. Instead of the latter, a column 250 feet (76 m) high surmounted with a statue of Queen Anne was to have been erected a short distance to the west of the church. A great quantity of stone was purchased and brought to the spot, but the plan was abandoned on the death of the queen in 1714. Instead, the architect was ordered to reuse the stone to build a steeple, which fundamentally altered the plan of the church. Gibbs explained:

The building being then advanced twenty feet above ground, and therefore admitting of no alteration from east to west, which was only fourteen feet, I was obliged to spread it from south to north, which makes the plan oblong, which should otherwise have been square.

The extravagant Baroque ornamentation of the exterior was criticised at the time, and matters were not helped when one of the decorative urns surmounting the exterior of the church fell off and killed a passer-by during a procession in 1802. The prominent situation of the church has also been problematic; even in the 18th century, parishioners complained of the traffic noise. Hence, Gibbs designed the ground floor without windows so as to keep the noise of traffic out.

Even so, the church – Gibbs's first public building – won him considerable fame. The interior of the structure is richly decorated with a plastered ceiling in white and gold, with a ceiling inspired by Luigi Fontana's work in the church of Santi Apostoli and Pietro da Cortona's Santi Luca e Martina, both in Rome. The porch was inspired by Cortona's Santa Maria della Pace. The walls were influenced by Michelangelo and the steeple shows the influence of Sir Christopher Wren.

Rectors of St Mary le Strand

 * 1724–1759† John Heylyn
 * 1759–1761 Charles Tarrant (later Dean of Carlisle then Peterborough)
 * 1761–1777 Charles Bertie
 * 1777–1780† John William Hopkins
 * 1781–1812† James Robinson Hayward
 * 1813–1839† James Edward Gambier
 * 1839–1861† Joshua Frederick Denham
 * 1861–1878† Alfred Bowen Evans
 * 1878–1891 Lewen Tugwell
 * 1891–1944† Frederick Harcourt Hillersdon (Mayor of Westminster 1909)
 * 1944-1966 Bertram Francis Chambers
 * Edward Thompson
 * William Gulliford

† Rector died in post

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: St Mary le Strand


text:
Talk:Transcontinental railroad

Untitled
The world's First Transcontinental Railroad was built between 1863 and 1869 to join the eastern and western halves of the United States. Begun just before the American Civil War. If the Civil War started in 1861, shouldn't it read "Begun just after the American Civil War?"

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 1 September 2020 and 22 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Martinthelee.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 11:37, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled
SURELY....there is a date when the Canadian transcontinental railroad was finished and available for use...it stands now, as some time between 1881 and 1885--not good enough for an encyclopedia. And how about a separate entry for the United States, instead of merely a photo caption giving us May 10, 1869? HomeBuilding 207.178.98.59 (talk) 13:15, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

What is the name of Canada's transcontinental railway? Do we have an article on it? Wondering simply, -- Infrogmation 16:48, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * I second this, where is Canada?Patcat88 07:36, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

First came the Canadian Pacific Second came the Canadian National Tabletop 10:35, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Are there any trans-South America or trans-Africa railroads? Rmhermen 16:14, Feb 5, 2004 (UTC)

 * I remember there was a British plan to build a trans-African railway, but little of it was actually built. Anyone know more? Warofdreams 16:17, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

 * That was a plan of Cecil Rhodes to build a "Cape to Cairo" railroad which would have run from Johannesburg to Cairo. Mr Rhodes was heavily involved in exploiting the natural resources of southern Africa and wanted a quicker and easier way to get his product to European markets rather than sailing around the continent.  I don't think much of the planned route got built outside of Zimbabwe (which was then called Rhodesia).  slambo 15:45, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)

San Diego and Arizona Railway (SD&A)
Recently, an anon editor posting from IP address 86.10.51.14 began routinely removing the following passage:

 * *John D. Spreckels completed his privately-funded San Diego and Arizona Railway in 1919, thereby creating a direct link (via connection with the Southern Pacific lines) between San Diego and the Eastern United States.

After this removal was reverted several times The Proffesor left a message on my talk page regarding these previous edits. In the interim, The Proffesor has entered into a cycle of reverts over this issue with several other editors; his last edit began with

 * Some consider the San Diego and Arizona Railway transcontinental...

which was reverted (properly, in my opinion) by Mdhennessey on the basis of Avoid weasel words. I have since left a response on The Proffesor's talk page citing several sources that support designating the SD&A as a transcontinental railroad. Just minutes ago I reverted this same edit by The Proffesor and am asking that further discussion take place here prior to any further edits regarding this issue.

The last thing I want to see is an edit war erupt over this; any input or guidance from "outside" editors will, I am sure, be appreciated by all involved. I'd even support protecting the page, if necessary.--Lord Kinbote 06:30, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

 * I've taken some time to consider the issue before commenting here (partly to see if anyone else spoke up first). It seems to me that SD&A qualifies as a transcontinental as much as California Southern Railroad does.  Both railroads were built to form connections between a longer system and the Pacific coast at San Diego, but neither of the shorter railroads got past the California-Arizona border.  The other railroads on the US list here all directly connected points near or east of the Mississippi River to the Pacific and are more intuitively transcontinental; if nothing else, they all crossed the Rocky Mountains on their own rails.  So it comes down to a question of qualifications.  If we are going to include railroads that were built and intended to form parts of transcontinental connections, then we also need to include companies such as California Southern Railroad, Atlantic and Pacific Railroad and other subsidiary and separate companies.  I'm more inclined to limit the list to companies that connected the longer distances with their own rails.  However, I also think that mention should be made of these smaller companies that were intended to form parts of larger transcontinental systems; we just need to specify that these smaller railroads weren't by themselves transcontinental railroads.  Slambo (Speak)  13:04, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

 * I believe it's widely agreed that the Western Pacific Railroad is transcontinental, and it never crossed the Rockies. The problem is that we don't actually have a definition. The closest I can find to a good definition is "a railroad that crosses a continent or connects existing railroads so as to make a rail system that spans a continent", but that's too ambiguous, since it includes lines such as the International Railway of Maine and the Union Pacific Missouri River Bridge. --NE2 09:22, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

By the way, there definitely are sources for the SD&A being transcontinental: On the other hand, the D&RGW is described as part of a transcontinental route:  It seems that the "last stretch" over the Sierra Nevada or Cascades is what's required to be truly transcontinental. --NE2 09:40, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

may be useful for a history of early routes after the first. --NE2 09:44, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

I listed all "transcontinental" lines or combinations of lines I could find at User:NE2/transcon. --NE2 00:20, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Two "First Transcontinental Railroads"
How is it possible that the Panama Railroad is listed as the first transcontinental railroad, but the article First Transcontinental Railroad describes the whole history of the U.S. Railroad?

I suggest that the U.S. Railroad should be moved to an article entitled Second Transcontinental Railroad and that the First transcontinental railroad article redirects to the history of the Panama Railroad.

--WikiDrive 02:12, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

 * This was discussed over a year ago and closed with no consensus for a move. The comments are in the archive. Slambo (Speak)  14:36, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

 * The seminal period book on the subject of the Panama Railroad is "Illustrated History of the Panama Railroad" by Fessenden N. Otis, MD published by Harper & Brothers in 1861. (The author had been a ship's surgeon for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company from 1853-59.) At no place in this work is the railroad described as being a "transcontinental" line. (The word "continent" only appears once in the 268 page book (on page 262) referring to the location of ticket offices in Europe, while the word "transcontinental" does not appear in the book anywhere at all.) On the first page of the book's main text (page 15), however, Dr. Otis describes the purpose for which the road was built across the Isthmus of Panama was to permit ...free interoceanic communication at this point." The line was also described in the contemporary press when it opened in 1855 as being an "inter-oceanic" railroad such as in a story entitled "A Great Enterprise" published in The Portland (Maine) Transcript on February 17, 1855 ("That great enterprise, the inter-oceanic or Panama Railroad across the Isthmus, is completed, and the rough Atlantic is now wedded, with an iron band, to the fair Pacific.") as opposed to a "transcontinental" one. Centpacrr (talk) 11:00, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

Panama Railroad as a "Transcontinental" Railroad
The Panama Railroad as used in "transcontinental" travel between New York and San Francisco before 1869 was actually only a very small portion (between Aspinwall and Panama City) of the entire ticketed passage which was offered by the North American Steamship Company prior to the completion of the Pacific Railroad with the vast majority of the trip being made over water by steamer. I see that the contention that the Panama Railroad is a "transcontinental" railroad is derived from an entry to that effect originally made by Infrogmation on February 2, 2004, in the article Transcontinental Railroad and on December 27, 2004, by RJII (since permanently banned from editing for abuse), but neither of these contentions (or the current portion of the article still claiming that the Panama Railroad is a "transcontinental railroad") cite any references to support it. When opened on January 28, 1855, the railroad was actually referred to as the railroad. Using this logic, a railroad running from Miami, FL, on the Atlantic Ocean to Tampa, FL, on the Gulf of Mexico could also be described as a "transcontinental railroad" as well which would, I think, be misleading. (Centpacrr (talk) 21:44, 5 June 2008 (UTC))

 * It was "transcontinental" in that it connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. I started the article on the Panama Railroad to fill a gap since noone else had started the article before me, but cannot claim to be the first to notice that it connected the two sides of a continent. I know of no suggestion that any other railway did so earlier. -- Infrogmation (talk) 22:41, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Actual date of completion of the Pacific Railroad under the provisions of the 1862 Act; Eastern Terminus
While the tracked grades of the CPRR and UPRR were joined with the driving of the Last Spike at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869, the line was not deemed to have met the requirements of the Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864 until six months later on November 9, 1869. This date of completion was established by a decision of the U.S. Supreme court in the case of Union Pacific Railroad vs. United States (99 U.S. 402). (See The Official "Date of Completion" of the Transcontinental Railroad under the Provisions of the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, et seq., as Established by the Supreme Court of the United States to be November 6, 1869. (99 U.S. 402) 1879)

The Eastern terminus of the Pacific Railroad was not Omaha, Nebraska, which is located on the Western side of the Missouri River, but was actually Council Bluffs, Iowa, which is its sister city situated on the eastern side of the Missouri River directly opposite Omaha even though Council Bluffs and Omaha were not physically connected by rail until almost four years AFTER the first through trains ran over the Pacific route when the UPRR's Missouri River Railroad Bridge was completed and opened on March 25, 1873. (See Executive Order of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, Fixing the Point of Commencement of the Pacific Railroad at Council Bluffs, Iowa. dated March 7, 1864. 38th Congress, 1st Session SENATE Ex. Doc. No. 27)

 * If I'm not mistaken, the point was defined as roughly here (the river followed the line there until 1877). Was it redefined between 1864 and 1869? --NE2 09:05, 18 August 2008 (UTC)
 * That does seem to be the point shown on as a Missouri River crossing. (The river is misleading, both based on its current route and on the state line, but if you look at the section lines it matches.) The cross-state section lines are somewhat misaligned (Iowa should be about 1/2 mile farther north with respect to Nebraska than it is on the map), and I would assume that the "probable connection" is just a roughly-drawn line. I would put the east end of the bridge roughly here and thus, depending on whether the "western boundary of the State of Iowa" was the east bank of the river or the state line in its center, the east end of the railroad was either there or about here.  shows the end on the west bank slightly to the north, but probably still complying to the executive order (with respect to the west end of the required bridge), about here. However,  shows that the bridge was always in its current location. Was a new order made, or did the UP have to build north on the east side to what became the river's west side in 1877?
 * Now, of course, the 1869 joining may not have technically satisfied the act, but it was much more important in shortening the time between the coasts than the later completion of the bridge, and is rightly the year that is widely considered to be the most significant. --NE2 14:21, 18 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Agreed. My only point was that the 1862 Act "authorized and directed" the President of the United States "...to fix the point on the western boundary of the State of Iowa, from which the Union Pacific Railroad Company is by said section authorized and required to construct a single line of railroad and telegraph upon the most direct and practicable route, subject to the approval of the President of the United States, so as to form a connexion with the lines of said company at some point on the one hundredth meridian of longitude in said section named" which President Lincoln "designated and established" by Executive Order on March 7, 1864, as being the "point on the western boundary of the State of Iowa, east of, and opposite to, the east line of section 10, in township 15 north, of range 13 east, of the sixth principal meridian, in the Territory of Nebraska" thus confirming the statutory Eastern terminus to be in Council Bluff, Iowa, and not Omaha, Nebraska. The UPRR's own website also notes on its Museum page that: "The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 by Union Pacific and its constituent railroads shaped the landscape and geography of the American West. Council Bluffs, the eastern terminus of that landmark railroad, represented the starting point for tens of thousands of westward-bound immigrants." As with almost everything involved with building and operating the Pacific Railroad, of course, it was messy. (Centpacrr (talk) 22:20, 18 August 2008 (UTC))

Split this page?
Obviously the concept of North American transcontinental railways is a notable one. But elsewhere it doesn't seem to be as important, coming about more through joining of mature systems. I suggest moving the North American stuff to transcontinental railroads in North America (unless we decide not to include Mexico), and turning this into a disambiguation with links to pages such as Trans-Australian Railway, Trans-Asian Railway, and Cape-Cairo Railway. --NE2 13:29, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

An Act of Congress
I believe it took a Act of Congress to "drive the silver spike". Since both railroads were being paid for the amount (miles) of track laid, and, since both railroads had laid track that passed each other, and, since neither railroad wouls stop laying track, then Congress acted to stop the payments for the laying of track. Congress then directed the two railroads to relay their tracks to meet in Utah. Many Irish and Chinese laborers were then put of work. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.11.21.203 (talk) 02:55, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
 * You're probably looking for First Transcontinental Railroad. --NE2 03:00, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Intercontinental Bridges
Important bridges such as the Red Sea bridge link different continents or major sub-continents and should be at least mentions in this topic. Tabletop (talk) 22:40, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

 * You don't understand what transcontinental means. --NE2 07:07, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Australasia or Oceania for Australia
In line with the other sub headings in the article, the Australia section should be renamed to reflect the continent it exists in, even if it is the only country mentioned in the section. Which name for the continent should be used though? —Preceding unsigned comment added by OffiMcSpin (talk • contribs) 15:39, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Nobodys made a comment so I'm going to go for Oceania--OffiMcSpin (talk) 00:55, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

Might I say, I agree with the first comment above. The sub-title of "Oceania" in unnecessary and inconsistent. Australia is both the contient and the country this particular part of the subject matter relates to. Oceania is a geographical or political grouping, not directly relevant to the subject matter. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikiuss (talk • contribs) 14:47, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Observation
At the risk of offending, I'll enter an opinion/observation.

This article seems to me a case of trying to create invent an article out of a disambiguation. The page seems to be trying to summarize numerous topics related only by the fact that according to certain definitions they could be considered to cross a continent. But there is little discussion of what a "transcontinental railway" is or why that by itself is notable. By the same token I could turn the disambig Springfield into an article about all the towns with that name and describe each one. That would be a bogus article. The fact that the individual towns themselves are notable does not make "Springfield" a notable topic itself. By the same token I don't really know of anything particularly notable about the concept of a transcontinental railroad.

I would propose that this should be made into a disambig.

--Mcorazao (talk) 16:42, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

 * I agree; see above. --NE2 17:54, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Europe
Despite the opening line of this article I'm wondering if technically trans-european services ARE actually worthy of inclusion here? Though clearly not as impressive in many ways due to its paltry size in comparison with Asia or America, certainly it is now possible to cross large sections of our small continent by direct train (for example London-Marseilles, Paris-Brindisi, Helsinki-Moscow, Madrid-Paris etc...you can even buy a ticket for a London-Malta service by train (and ferry of course!). Plus there are plenty of former services as the opening line suggests like the Orient Express Paris-Istanbul serivce which could really should be listed here as a trans-continental service. What do people think about altering the first line and startin a new paragraph on cross-Europe services??--Mapmark (talk) 13:25, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

1864 Executive Order of the President fixing the point of commencement of the Pacific Railroad (Original Document)
The long standing link to the 1864 Executive Order of the President fixing the point of commencement of the Pacific Railroad has been restored. This original link (which had been in place since August 18, 2008) provides direct access to a searchable, verbatim transcription made directly from an original 1864 U.S. Government produced printing of Senate Ex. Doc. No. 27 (38th Congress, 1st Session). The link which had been recently substituted for it is not to a verifiable original document, but to a 778-page pdf of a 1907 commercially published volume (The Century Co., New York) containing unsourced, unverified third party transcriptions of many hundreds of Lincoln's "speeches, letters, state papers, and miscellaneous writings" made and printed 43 years after the fact which a reader then has to then search through on his/her own in order to find the the the text of the unsourced 1907 commercial transcription. Further substitution of the unverified, unsourced 1907 transcription for the link to the page with the annotated transcription made from the 1864 original will be considered to be disruptive editing and treated as such. Centpacrr (talk) 16:09, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

US48-Canada-Alaska RR
Would a US48 Canada Alaska Railroad count as a Transcontinental railway? Tabletop (talk) 03:15, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

Rearranged the section "The Americas"
The arrangement of the railroads in the Section "The Americas" did not follow either geographical or chronological order, so I rearranged it chronologically. --WikiDrive (talk) 16:27, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Sections now arranged by continents/sub continents. Centpacrr (talk) 00:38, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Long sentence in lede
Multiple clauses in this sentence make for difficult reading:

 * Construction by the Central Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad of the 1,928 mile "Pacific Railroad" link between Council Bluff,IA/Omaha, NE and the San Francisco Bay at Oakland, CA via Ogden, UT and Sacramento, CA connecting with the existing railroad network to the East Coast via ferry creating the world's first transcontinental railroad when it opened in 1869 was made possible by the Congress through the passage of Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862, 1864 and 1867.

I'm going to try to shorten it by trimming out details (which are/should be covered in the body text, anyway). If anyone objects, feel free to edit/revert and discuss here. Phlar (talk) 20:44, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Transcontinental railroad


text:
Women's Royal Naval Service

The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS; popularly and officially known as the Wrens) was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the First World War, it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War, remaining active until integrated into the Royal Navy in 1993. WRNS included cooks, clerks, wireless telegraphists, radar plotters, weapons analysts, range assessors, electricians and air mechanics.

First World War
The WRNS was formed in 1917 during the First World War. On 10 October 1918, nineteen-year-old Josephine Carr from Cork became the first Wren to die on active service, when her ship, the RMS Leinster was torpedoed. By the end of the war the service had 5,500 members, 500 of them officers. In addition, 2,867 Wrens, 46 officers and 2,821 other ranks who had previously supported the Royal Naval Air Service chose to be transferred to the RAF Royal Air Force. The WRNS was disbanded in 1919.

Second World War
At the beginning of the Second World War Vera Laughton Mathews was appointed as the director of the re-formed WRNS in 1939 with Ethel (Angela) Goodenough as her deputy. The WRNS had an expanded list of allowable activities, including flying transport planes. At its peak in 1944 it had 75,000 active servicewomen. During the war 102 WRNS members were killed in action and 22 wounded in action. One of the slogans used in recruitment posters was "Join the Wrens and free a man for the Fleet".

Wrens were prominent as support staff at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park; they were the direct operators of the bombes and Colossus used to break Axis codes and cyphers.

Post-war era

The WRNS remained in existence after the end of the war although Mathews retired in 1947 and Goodenough had died the year before. In the 1970s it became obvious that equal pay for women and the need to remove sexual discrimination meant that the WRNS and the Royal Navy would become one organisation. The key change was that women would become subject to the Naval Discipline Act 1957. Vonla McBride, who had experience in human resource management, became the Director of the WRNS in 1976, and members of the WRNS were subject to the same discipline as men by the next year.

In October 1990, during the Gulf War, HMS Brilliant carried the first women officially to serve on an operational warship. That same year, Chief Officer Pippa Duncan became the first WRNS officer to command a Royal Navy shore establishment. The WRNS was finally integrated into the Royal Navy in 1993, when women were allowed to serve on board navy vessels as full members of the crew. Female sailors are still informally known by the nicknames "wrens" or "Jennies" ("Jenny Wrens") in naval slang.

Before 1993, all women in the Royal Navy were members of the WRNS except nurses, who joined (and still join) Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service, and medical and dental officers, who were commissioned directly into the Royal Navy, held RN ranks, and wore WRNS uniform with gold RN insignia.

Ranks and insignia
The WRNS had its own ranking system, which it retained until amalgamation into the Royal Navy in 1993.

Enlisted
Ratings' titles were suffixed with their trade (e.g. Leading Wren Cook, Chief Wren Telegraphist).

Wrens wore the same rank insignia as their male equivalents, but in blue instead of gold. The "curls" atop officers' rank stripes were diamond-shaped instead of circular.

Uniforms
From 1939, Wren uniform, designed by leading British fashion designer Edward Molyneux, consisted of a double-breasted jacket and skirt, with shirt and tie, for all ranks (although similar working dress to the men could also be worn). Junior Ratings wore hats similar to those of their male counterparts (although with a more sloping top). Senior Ratings (Petty Officers and above) and officers wore tricorne hats. In tropical areas these had a white cover. All insignia, including cap badges and non-substantive (trade) badges, were blue.

List of directors

 * Dame Katharine Furse, 1917–1919
 * Dame Vera Laughton Mathews, 1939–1946
 * Dame Jocelyn Woollcombe, 1946–1950
 * Commandant Dame Mary Lloyd, 1950–1954
 * Commandant Dame Nancy Robertson, 1954–1958
 * Commandant Dame Elizabeth Hoyer-Millar, 1958–1960
 * Commandant Dame Jean Davies, 1961–1964
 * Commandant Dame Margaret Drummond, 1964–1967
 * Commandant Dame Marion Kettlewell, 1967–1970
 * Commandant Daphne Blundell, 1970–1973
 * Commandant Mary Talbot, 1973–1976
 * Commandant Vonla McBride, 1976–1979
 * Commandant Elizabeth Craig-McFeely, 1979–1982
 * Commandant Patricia Swallow, 1982–1985
 * Commandant Marjorie Fletcher, 1985–1988
 * Commandant Anthea Larken, 1988–1991
 * Commandant Anne Spencer, 1991–1993

Memoirs

 * Patricia Davies (cryptographer) co-wrote Codebreaking Sisters. Patricia and Jean Owtram (2020) London: Mirror Books. ISBN 9781913406059
 * Patricia Davies (cryptographer) co-wrote Codebreaking Sisters. Patricia and Jean Owtram (2020) London: Mirror Books. ISBN 9781913406059
 * Patricia Davies (cryptographer) co-wrote Codebreaking Sisters. Patricia and Jean Owtram (2020) London: Mirror Books. ISBN 9781913406059
 * Patricia Davies (cryptographer) co-wrote Codebreaking Sisters. Patricia and Jean Owtram (2020) London: Mirror Books. ISBN 9781913406059

title: Women's Royal Naval Service


text:
WRNS

WRNS may refer to:

 * Women's Royal Naval Service, the former women's branch of the British Royal Navy
 * WRNS (AM), a radio station (960 AM) licensed to serve Kinston, North Carolina, United States
 * WRNS-FM, a radio station (95.1 FM) licensed to serve Kinston, North Carolina

title: WRNS


text:
SantaCon

SantaCon is an annual pub crawl in which people dressed in Santa Claus costumes or as other Christmas characters parade in hundreds of cities around the world. The event has sometimes been characterized by drunken behavior, sparking community resistance.

Origins
SantaCon began in San Francisco in 1994, inspired by a Mother Jones article on the Danish activist theatre group Solvognen. In 1974, Solvognen gathered dozens of "Santas" in Copenhagen to hand out items from the shelves of a department store to customers as "presents" before they were arrested. Staged as street theater by a local prankster group, the Cacophony Society — which had grown out of the earlier Suicide Club — the aim was to make fun of Christmas and the rampant consumerism associated with the holiday. Originally called Santarchy and influenced by the Surrealist movement, Discordianism, and other subversive art currents, it was not intended to be a recurrent event. However, the event occurred again in San Francisco in 1995 as a Cacophony Society event with 100 participants and at least two arrests.

SantaCon came to Portland in 1996, to Seattle in 1997, and to Los Angeles and New York in 1998, when a "young San Franciscan strapped on a fake white beard, donned a $12 red suit, and led 200 Santas as they went caroling up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan," to the delight of passersby. It has since evolved and spread to 44 countries around the world, with varying versions and interpretations. Events for 2013 were scheduled in 300 cities, including New York City, London, Vancouver, Belfast, and Moscow. The New York SantaCon is the largest, with an estimated 30,000 people participating in 2012. Other events were much smaller and more subdued, with 30 participating in Spokane, Washington.

The event has also been variously known as Santarchy, Santa Rampage, the Red Menace, and Santapalooza. A December 2015 article on Vox described SantaCon as "a roving, loosely organized event where people dress like Santa Claus, elves, or other holiday figures and parade around a city in varying states of sobriety. Comparable to other adult party days, like St. Patrick's Day or Halloween, it's not organized by one particular group, though there is occasionally a dominant organization in a city (with varying degrees of cooperation with local businesses)."

New York City
In New York City, by far the largest SantaCon venue, the event has been criticized for widespread drunkenness and sporadic violence. At a 2011 community board meeting in lower Manhattan, residents complained that their neighborhood had been "terrorized" by SantaCon participants. A December 2014 cover story in the Village Voice recounted how SantaCon had evolved from "joyful performance art" that originated in San Francisco to a "reviled bar crawl" of drunken brawling, vandalism, public urination and disorder in New York City and elsewhere, resulting in fierce community resistance and disavowals from the originators of the event. An emergency room physician tweeted in 2019 that the day is dreaded by ER physicians. Another tweeted "All the NYC folks will understand my horror at learning that I'm working in the ER during SantaCon this weekend."

In an article on the 2011 SantaCon, Gothamist called SantaCon an "annual drunken shitshow" that "has steadily devolved from cleverly subversive to barely tolerable to 'time to lock yourself in your apartment for the day.' " The New York Daily News reported in 2017 that the event "endures an annual backlash from New Yorkers repulsed by the sight of Santas vomiting or urinating in the street in years past."

During the New York City SantaCon in 2012, participants "left a trail of trouble" through Hell's Kitchen, midtown Manhattan, the East Village, and Williamsburg. Residents complained revelers vomited and urinated in the street and fought with each other. One source of tension with residents was that most of the revelers come to the event from outside the city.

Official organizers in 2013 described it as "a nonsensical Santa Claus convention that happens once a year for absolutely no reason", saying on their website that $60,000 was raised that year for New York charities, and that participants donated about 6,850 lb of canned food to City Harvest. That year, The New York Times described the event as "a daylong bar crawl that begins with good cheer and, for many, inevitably ends in a blurry, booze-soaked haze."

Drunken behavior in 2013 disrupted parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn,   and led to calls for the event to be ended and for participant misbehavior to be curbed. The event is monitored and supported by the New York City Police Department. But community opposition has increased, as SantaCon evolved into what The Village Voice described as "a day-long spectacle of public inebriation somewhere between a low-rent Mardi Gras and a drunken fraternity party." An op-ed in The New York Times on the eve of the 2013 SantaCon criticized it for "sexism, drunkenness, xenophobia, homophobia and enough incidents of public vomiting and urination to fill an infinite dunk tank," and said it "contributes absolutely zero value – cultural, artistic, aesthetic, diversionary, culinary or political – to its host neighborhood. Quite simply, SantaCon is a parasite." Business Insider called the 2013 event a "dreaded annual event where frat house expats" wreak havoc on the city "dressed as the jolly holiday icon." An NYPD lieutenant in Hell's Kitchen sent an open letter to local taverns in 2013 which said, "Having thousands of intoxicated partygoers roam the streets urinating, littering, vomiting and vandalizing will not be tolerated in our neighborhood." On the Lower East Side of Manhattan, residents posted notices telling SantaCon participants to stay away, saying "Alcohol Soaked Father Christmas-themed flash mob not welcome here. Take your body fluids and public intoxication elsewhere." The Los Angeles Times reported that "some see [SantaCon] as a way for people who live in the suburbs to come to the city and ruin the weekend."

Prior to the 2013 SantaCon, city authorities demanded advance notice of the route of the pub crawl. The event was diverted from the Lower East Side and Midtown Manhattan because of complaints by residents, but went through the East Village and parts of Brooklyn as originally planned. During the 2013 SantaCon in New York City, the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad and New Jersey Transit banned alcohol consumption on their trains for 24 hours. The 2013 SantaCon was more subdued than previous ones not only due to the alcohol ban on trains, but also an increased police presence, poor weather, and advance coordination with authorities. A SantaCon organizer said that the group was "very aware of the backlash" and has sought to curb participant misconduct by the use of "helper elves" along the SantaCon route. There were no arrests at the 2013 SantaCon in New York City, and far fewer summonses issued. A more visible police presence and poor weather were credited with the decrease. Complaints of crowds and public drunkenness continued, and "the Santas would more or less take over all of the East Village – visiting bars that had no affiliation with SantaCon whatsoever, angering patrons of those establishments who had no interest in being caught up in the debauchery." In 2014, community leaders in Bushwick, Brooklyn, banded together to block SantaCon when organizers announced their intent to move the event to that neighborhood. Rafael Espinal, Jr., the city councilman representing Bushwick, urged bars to refrain from participating in the event. A "boycott SantaCon" website was launched by other opponents, and bars said that they would refuse entry to SantaCon participants. The New York City Parks Department refused to issue a permit for use of a local park, leading organizers to cancel plans to have SantaCon in Bushwick.

After the withdrawal from Bushwick, and opposition from the community board representing the Lower East Side and Hell's Kitchen, the 2014 event was rescheduled for 13 December for 32 bars in Midtown Manhattan. Event organizers hired Norman Siegel, a civil rights attorney, to defend their rights to express themselves "within the parameters of the First Amendment." The 2014 SantaCon coincided with demonstrations in Manhattan against police brutality sparked by the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases.

Police arrested 5 participants and handed out 100 summonses during the 2015 SantaCon, which took place on 12 December. The summonses were for offenses that included carrying an open container, disorderly conduct, and public urination. One participant was arrested for assault, one for possession of a weapon, and three with drug possession.

In anticipation of the 2016 SantaCon, scheduled for 10 December, Metro-North Railroad banned alcohol on trains and stations. The event was scheduled to take place in Midtown Manhattan, the East Village, and the Flatiron District. A hundred summonses were handed out by police but there were no arrests. The New York Daily News reported that the pub crawl left "a trail of vomit and destruction throughout the East Village" and that one bar was robbed and vandalized by SantaCon participants.

The 2017 New York City SantaCon took place on 9 December. A stepped-up police presence and 24-hour liquor ban on Long Island Rail Road trains curbed disorder. Police reported one arrest. Two arrests and over 50 summonses were reported in 2018.

The 2019 SantaCon was on 14 Dec. at bars in Times Square, Midtown, Chelsea and the East Village. The Long Island Railroad, Metro-North and New Jersey Transit banned alcohol on trains for the day. A citizens campaign was launched to ban future SantaCons in the city, and plans for "Santa party boats" were disapproved after three New York legislators raised concerns with the marina operator.

The New York City SantaCon website stated that there would be no officially sanctioned New York Santacon event in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event returned in 2021, and 2022, and the 25th annual SantaCon took place in December 2023.

Hoboken
At the 2017 Santacon in Hoboken, New Jersey, 17 people were arrested and 55 taken to hospitals. In 2018, 14 were arrested, including two for aggravated assault on police officers and one for a sexual offense. Hoboken's mayor, Ravi Bhalla, said that SantaCon "remains a detriment to our city," and that Hoboken would "continue to explore ways to mitigate the impact of future ‘con’ events.”

At the Hoboken SantaCon in 2019, eight persons were arrested, 49 summonses were issued, and there were 500 calls for assistance. Twenty persons were hospitalized for alcohol-related issues. Police Chief Ken Ferrante said the event, not sanctioned by the city, cost $75,000 in extra police manpower and said that its purported charitable purpose was a "sham."

Saint Paul
Lowertown SantaCon was first held in the Lowertown Historic District (Saint Paul, Minnesota) in 2008, organized by local artists and featuring a roving brass band playing Christmas carols for the first several years of the pub crawl, self-described as "half spectacle, half pub crawl and half flash mob—that’s one and a half things!—in the historic former arts district of Lowertown, Saint Paul, MN." Unlike the infamous New York SantaCon, this smaller event has avoided negative press, has been welcomed by the local community, and has even included a "family friendly" first stop on the route where children can meet a costumed Krampus.

Portland
In Portland, Oregon, the 2014 SantaCon was organized by the Cacophony Society, which had originated SantaCon in the city, and sought to recapture the event's roots. The Oregonian commented that "while the massively popular New York SantaCon made its own bold statement about First Amendment rights Saturday, the Portland SantaCon's statement went back to the charmingly subversive attitude that started it all."

San Francisco
In 2018, SantaCon organizers said that the city of San Francisco will not sanction the event. The event went on despite the city's objections, concerned with safety and crowd control. No permits were issued and the crowd was thinner than in the past. The events were held there in subsequent years.

title: SantaCon


text:
List of lakes of Romania

This is a list of lakes of Romania. Notable lakes include Lake Sfânta Ana, the only crater lake in Romania, and Lake Razelm, the largest liman in the country.

Other lakes

 * Lake Sărat: "Sărat" = "Salty"; at its bottom is still a crust of salt. Near Brăila. A small beach.
 * Lake Someșu Rece: it is located in Cluj County

title: List of lakes of Romania


text:
Ladies' Home Journal

Ladies' Home Journal was an American magazine that ran until 2016 and was last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In 1891, it was published in Philadelphia by the Curtis Publishing Company. In 1903, it was the first American magazine to reach one million subscribers.

In the late 20th century, the rise of television caused sales of the magazine to decline as the publishing company struggled. On April 24, 2014, Meredith announced it would stop publishing the magazine as a monthly with the July issue, stating it was "transitioning Ladies' Home Journal to a special interest publication". It became available quarterly on newsstands only, though its website remained in operation. The last issue was published in 2016.

Ladies' Home Journal was one of the Seven Sisters. The name was derived from the Greek myth of the "seven sisters", also known as the Pleiades.

Early history
The Ladies' Home Journal was developed from a double-page supplement in the American newspaper Tribune and Farmer titled Women at Home. Women at Home was written by Louisa Knapp Curtis, wife of the paper's publisher, Cyrus H. K. Curtis. After a year, it became an independent publication, with Knapp as editor for the first six years. Its original name was The Ladies' Home Journal and Practical Housekeeper, but Knapp dropped the last three words in 1886.

Edward William Bok
Knapp was succeeded by Edward William Bok as LHJ editor in late 1889. Knapp remained involved with the magazine's management, and she also wrote a column for each issue. In 1892, LHJ became the first magazine to refuse patent medicine advertisements. In 1896, Bok became Louisa Knapp's son-in-law when he married her daughter, Mary Louise Curtis. LHJ reached a subscribed circulation of more than one million copies by 1903, the first American magazine to do so. Bok served until 1919. The features he introduced was the "Ruth Ashmore advice column", written by Isabel Mallon. In the 20th century, the magazine published the work of muckrakers and social reformers such as Jane Addams. In 1901, it published two articles about the early architectural designs of Frank Lloyd Wright. The December 1909 issue included a comic strip which was the first appearance of Kewpie, created by Rose O'Neill.

Bok introduced business practices of low subscription rates and inclusion of advertising to offset costs. Some argue that women's magazines, like the Ladies' Home Journal, pioneered the strategies "magazine revolution".

Edward Bok authored more than twenty articles opposed to women's suffrage which threatened his "vision of the woman at home, living the simple life". He opposed the concept of women working outside the home, women's clubs, and education for women. He wrote that feminism would lead women to divorce, ill health, and even death. Bok solicited articles against women's rights from former presidents Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt (though Roosevelt would later become a supporter of women's suffrage). Bok viewed suffragists as traitors to their sex, saying that "there is no greater enemy of woman than woman herself."

Later history
During World War II, the Ladies' Home Journal was a venue for the government to place articles intended for homemakers. The annual subscription price paid for the production of the magazine and its mailing. The profits came from heavy advertising, pitched to families with above-average incomes of $1,000 to $3,000 in 1900. In the 1910s, it carried about a third of the advertising in all women's magazines. By 1929, it had nearly twice as much advertising as any other publication except for the Saturday Evening Post, which was also published by the Curtis family. The Ladies' Home Journal was sold to 2 million subscribers in the mid-1920s, grew a little during the depression years, and surged again during post-World War II. In 1955, each issue sold 4.6 million copies, and there were approximately 11 million readers.

Seven Sisters
The Journal, along with its major rivals, Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, Redbook and Woman's Day, were known as the Seven Sisters, after the women's colleges in the Northeast. For decades, the Journal had the most circulation of the Seven Sisters, but it fell behind McCall's in 1961. In 1968, its circulation was 6.8 million, compared to McCall's 8.5 million. That year, Curtis Publishing sold the Ladies' Home Journal and the magazine The American Home to Downe Communications for $5.4 million in stock. Between 1969 and 1974, Downe was acquired by Charter Company. In 1982, it sold the magazine to Family Media Inc., publishers of Health magazine.

Protest
In March 1970, feminists Susan Brownmiller held an 11-hour sit-in at the Ladies' Home Journal's office, with some of them sitting on the desk of editor John Mack Carter and asking him to resign and be replaced by a woman editor. Carter declined to resign; he was allowed to produce a section of the magazine that August. Other activists continued the protests.

Redesign and circulations
In 1986, the Meredith Corporation acquired the magazine from Family Media for $96 million. In 1998, the Journal 's circulation had dropped to 4.5 million. The magazine debuted an extensive visual and editorial redesign in its March 2012 issue. Photographer Brigitte Lacombe was hired to shoot cover photos, with Kate Winslet appearing on the first revamped issue. The Journal announced that portions of its editorial content would be crowdsourced from readers, who would be fairly compensated for their work.

The magazine made the decision to end monthly publication and relaunch it quarterly. At the same time, the headquarters of the magazine moved from New York City to Des Moines, Iowa. Meredith offered its subscribers the chance to transfer their subscriptions to Meredith's sister publications. The magazine had a readership of 3.2 million in 2016. Also in 2016, Meredith partnered with Grand Editorial to produce Ladies' Home Journal. Only one issue was created.

Features
The American cooking teacher Sarah Tyson Rorer served as LHJ 's first food editor from 1897 to 1911, when she moved to Good Housekeeping. In 1936, Mary Cookman, wife of New York Post editor Joseph Cookman, began working at the Ladies' Home Journal. In time, she was named its Executive Editor, and she remained with LHJ until 1963.

In 1946, the Journal adopted the slogan "Never underestimate the power of a woman", which it continues to use today.

The magazine's trademark feature is "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" In this popular column, each person of a couple in a troubled marriage explains their view of the problem, a marriage counselor explains the solutions offered in counseling, and the outcome is published. It was written for 30 years, starting in 1953, by Dorothy D. MacKaye under the name of Dorothy Cameron Disney. MacKaye co-founded this column with Paul Popenoe, a founding practitioner of marriage counseling in the U.S. The two jointly wrote a book of the same title in 1960. Both the book and the column drew their material from the extensive case files of the American Institute of Family Relations in Los Angeles, California. MacKaye died in 1992 at the age of 88. Subsequent writers for the feature have included Lois Duncan and Margery D. Rosen.

The illustrations of William Ladd Taylor were featured between 1895 and 1926; the magazine also sold reproductions of his works in oil and watercolor.

Editors

 * Louisa Knapp Curtis (1889–1889)
 * Edward William Bok (1890–1919)
 * H. O. Davis (1919–1920)
 * Barton W. Currie (1920–1928)
 * Loring A. Schuler (1928–1935)
 * Bruce Gould and Beatrice Gould (1935–1962)
 * Curtiss Anderson (1962–1964)
 * Davis Thomas (1964–1965)
 * John Mack Carter (1965–1973)
 * Lenore Hershey (1973–1981)
 * Myrna Blyth (1981–2002)
 * Diane Salvatore (2002–2008)
 * Sally Lee (2008–2014)

Other notable staff

 * Cynthia May Alden
 * Mary Bass
 * Eleanor Hoyt Brainerd
 * Kathryn Casey
 * Christine Frederick
 * Florence Morse Kingsley
 * Julia Magruder
 * Isabel Mallon
 * Helen Reimensnyder Martin
 * Jane Nickerson
 * Sylvia Porter
 * Eben E. Rexford
 * Gene Shalit
 * Mark Sullivan
 * Gladys Taber
 * Dorothy Thompson

title: Ladies' Home Journal


text:
Ophrys lutea

Ophrys lutea, the yellow bee-orchid, is a species of orchid native to southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, the range extending from Portugal and Morocco to Syria.

Description of the flower
Broad asymmetric lateral sepals, dorsal sepal lowered.

Extended petals, yellow or with a blue-grey or brown spotted velvety macula. Pollinated by male Andrena bees. This species is notable among Ophrys for the fact that the pollinating bees sit on the labellum facing away from the pollinaria instead of facing towards them, and thus collect the pollinaria with their abdomen.

Subspecies
Numerous subspecific names have been proposed, but the following are currently accepted:

 * Ophrys lutea subsp. aspea (Devillers-Tersch. & Devillers) Faurh. - Northern Tunisia to Northern Libya
 * Ophrys lutea subsp. galilaea (H.Fleischm. & Bornm.) Soó - Mediterranean
 * Ophrys lutea subsp. laurensis (Geniez & Melki) Kreutz - Sicily
 * Ophrys lutea subsp. lutea Cav. - Western and Central Mediterranean to Crete
 * Ophrys lutea subsp. phryganae  (Devillers-Tersch. & Devillers) Melki - Central and Eastern Mediterranean

Flowering period
March to May

Habitat
The orchid grows in full sun or shade on limey dry or damp soils, pastures, and thin woodland.

 from the French Wikipedia; technical translation of some words still needing checking

title: Ophrys lutea


text:
List of judges of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales

The ordinary judges of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales are the Lord Justices of Appeal and Lady Justices of Appeal. These judges serve with the ex officio members of the court:
 * Lord Chief Justice
 * Master of the Rolls
 * President of the King's Bench Division
 * President of the Family Division
 * Chancellor of the High Court
 * Supreme Court judges appointed from the Court of Appeal or who were eligible to serve on it when appointed to the Supreme Court

Judges of the Court of Appeal are made members of the Privy Council within months of appointment, enabling them to serve as members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and entitling them to the style The Right Honourable.

The Senior Courts Act 1981 limited in principle the total number of Lord Justices of Appeal and Lady Justices of Appeal; it was raised by one to 39 by The Maximum Number of Judges Order 2015 (the Act allows for such Orders). The Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993 mandated that, along with other senior judges throughout the UK, they retired at 70 years of age (save for judges appointed before 31 March 1995 who had to retire at 75). However, the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 amended the 1993 Act to restore the retirement age of 75 for all judges, whenever appointed.

Ex officio judges
These are the ex officio judges of the Court of Appeal excepting the qualifying justices of the Supreme Court (the judges appointed from England and Wales); they are listed at Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom:

List of judges of the Court of Appeal
As of 15 December 2023 there are 36 Judges on the court: 27 Lord Justices of Appeal and 9 Lady Justices of Appeal.