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Carnegie library

A Carnegie library is a library built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. A total of 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including some belonging to public and university library systems. 1,689 were built in the United States, 660 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, 125 in Canada, and 25 others in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Serbia, Belgium, France, the Caribbean, Mauritius, Malaysia, and Fiji.

At first, Carnegie libraries were almost exclusively in places with which he had a personal connection—namely his birthplace in Scotland and the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, his adopted hometown. Yet, beginning in the middle of 1899, Carnegie substantially increased funding to libraries outside these areas. As Carnegie's library funding progressed, very few of the towns that requested a grant, committing to his terms for operation and maintenance, were refused. By the time the last grant was made in 1919, there were 3,500 libraries in the United States, nearly half of them Carnegie libraries.

History
Carnegie started erecting libraries in places with which he had personal associations. The first of Carnegie's public libraries, Dunfermline Carnegie Library, was in his birthplace, Dunfermline, Scotland. It was first commissioned or granted by Carnegie in 1880 to James Campbell Walker and would open in 1883.

The first library in the United States to be commissioned by Carnegie was in 1886 in his adopted hometown of Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now the North Side of Pittsburgh). In 1890, it became the second of his libraries to open in the US. The building also contained the first Carnegie Music Hall in the world.

The first Carnegie library to open in the United States was in Braddock, Pennsylvania, about 9 miles up the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh. In 1889, it was also the site of one of the Carnegie Steel Company's mills. It was the second Carnegie Library in the United States to be commissioned, in 1887, and was the first of the four libraries which he fully endowed. An 1893 addition doubled the size of the building and included the third Carnegie Music Hall in the United States.

Initially Carnegie limited his support to a few towns in which he had a personal interest. These were in Scotland and the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. In the United States, nine of the first 13 libraries which he commissioned are all located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The Braddock, Homestead, and Duquesne libraries were owned not by municipalities, but by Carnegie Steel, which constructed them, maintained them, and delivered coal for their heating systems. "'To this day, Carnegie's free-to-the-people libraries remain Pittsburgh's most significant cultural export, a gift that has shaped the minds and lives of millions.'"

In 1897, Carnegie hired James Bertram as his personal assistant. Bertram was responsible for fielding requests from municipalities for funds and overseeing the dispensing of grants for libraries. When Bertram received a letter requesting a library, he sent the applicant a questionnaire inquiring about the town's population, whether it had any other libraries, how large its book collection was, and what its circulation figures were. If initial requirements were met, Bertram asked the amount the town was willing to pledge for the library's annual maintenance, whether a site was being provided, and the amount of money already available.

Until 1898, only one library was commissioned in the United States outside Southwestern Pennsylvania: a library in Fairfield, Iowa, commissioned in 1892. It was the first project in which Carnegie had funded a library to which he had no personal ties. The Fairfield project was part of a new funding model to be used by Carnegie (through Bertram) for thousands of additional libraries.

Beginning in 1899, Carnegie's foundation funded a dramatic increase in the number of libraries. This coincided with the rise of women's clubs in the post-Civil War period. They primarily took the lead in organizing local efforts to establish libraries, including long-term fundraising and lobbying within their communities to support operations and collections. They led the establishment of 75–80 percent of the libraries in communities across the country.

Carnegie believed in giving to the "industrious and ambitious; not those who need everything done for them, but those who, being most anxious and able to help themselves, deserve and will be benefited by help from others." Under segregation, Black people were generally denied access to public libraries in the Southern United States. Rather than insisting on his libraries being racially integrated, Carnegie funded separate libraries for African Americans in the South. For example, in Houston he funded a separate Colored Carnegie Library. The Carnegie Library in Savannah, Georgia, opened in 1914 to serve Black residents, who had been excluded from the segregated White public library. The privately organized Colored Library Association of Savannah had raised money and collected books to establish a small Library for Colored Citizens. Having demonstrated their willingness to support a library, the group petitioned for and received funds from Carnegie. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his 2008 memoirs that he frequently used that library as a boy, before the public library system was desegregated.

The library buildings were constructed in a number of styles, including Beaux-Arts, Italian Renaissance, Baroque, Classical Revival, and Spanish Colonial, to enhance their appearance as public buildings. Scottish Baronial was one of the styles used for libraries in Carnegie's native Scotland. Each style was chosen by the community. As the years went by James Bertram, Carnegie's secretary, became less tolerant of approving designs that were not to his taste. Edward Lippincott Tilton, a friend often recommended by Bertram, designed many of the buildings.

The architecture was typically simple and formal, welcoming patrons through a prominent doorway, nearly always accessed via a staircase from the ground level. The entry staircase symbolized a person's elevation by learning. Similarly, most libraries had a lamp post or lantern installed near the entrance, meant as a symbol of enlightenment.

Carnegie's grants were very large for the era, and his library philanthropy was one of the most costly philanthropic activities, by value, in history. Carnegie continued funding new libraries until shortly before his death in 1919. Libraries were given to towns and cities in Great Britain and much of the English-speaking world: Almost $56.2 million went for construction of 2,509 libraries worldwide. Of that, $40 million was given for construction of 1,670 public library buildings in 1,412 American communities. Small towns received grants of $10,000 that enabled them to build large libraries that immediately were among the most significant town amenities in hundreds of communities.

Background
Books and libraries were important to Carnegie, from his early childhood in Scotland and his teen years in Allegheny and Pittsburgh. There he listened to readings and discussions of books from the Tradesman's Subscription Library, which his father had helped create. Later in Pennsylvania, while working for the local telegraph company in Pittsburgh, Carnegie borrowed books from the personal library of Colonel James Anderson. He opened his collection to his workers every Saturday. Anderson, like Carnegie, resided in Allegheny.

In his autobiography, Carnegie credited Anderson with providing an opportunity for "working boys" (that some people said should not be "entitled to books") to acquire the knowledge to improve themselves. Carnegie's personal experience as an immigrant, who with help from others worked his way and became wealthy, reinforced his belief in a society based on merit, where anyone who worked hard could become successful. This conviction was a major element of his philosophy of giving in general. His libraries were the best-known expression of this philanthropic goal. In 1900, Carnegie granted funds to build the Anderson Memorial Library, in memory of Colonel James Anderson, at the College of Emporia.

Carnegie formula
Nearly all of Carnegie's libraries were built according to "the Carnegie formula", which required financial commitments for maintenance and operation from the town that received the donation. Carnegie required public support rather than making endowments because, as he wrote: "an endowed institution is liable to become the prey of a clique. The public ceases to take interest in it, or, rather, never acquires interest in it. The rule has been violated which requires the recipients to help themselves. Everything has been done for the community instead of its being only helped to help itself."

Carnegie required the elected officials—the local government—to:
 * demonstrate the need for a public library;
 * provide the building site;
 * pay staff and maintain the library;
 * draw from public funds to run the library—not use only private donations;
 * annually provide ten percent of the cost of the library's construction to support its operation; and,
 * provide free service to all.

Carnegie assigned the decisions to his assistant James Bertram. He created a "Schedule of Questions". The schedule included: Name, status and population of town, Does it have a library? Where is it located and is it public or private? How many books? Is a town-owned site available? Estimation of the community's population at this stage was done by local officials, and Bertram later commented that if the population counts he received were accurate, "the nation's population had mysteriously doubled".

The effects of Carnegie's library philanthropy coincided with a peak in new town development and library expansion in the US. By 1890, many states had begun to take an active role in organizing public libraries, and the new buildings filled a tremendous need. It was also a time of rapid development of institutions of higher learning. Interest in libraries was also heightened at a crucial time in their early development by Carnegie's high profile and his genuine belief in their importance.

In Canada in 1901, Carnegie offered more than $2.5 million to build 125 libraries. Most cities at first turned him down—then relented and took the money.

In 1902, Carnegie offered funds to build a library in Dunedin in New Zealand. Between 1908 and 1916, 18 Carnegie libraries were opened across New Zealand.

Design
The Lawrenceville Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh signaled a break from the Richardsonian style of libraries which was popularized in the mid 1800s. The ALA discouraged Richardsonian characteristics such as alcoved book halls with high shelves requiring a ladder, as well as sheltered galleries and niches, reminiscent of sixteenth-century Europe, largely because modern librarians could not supervise such spaces efficiently.

Bertram's architectural criteria included a lecture room, reading rooms for adults and children, a staff room, a centrally located librarian's desk, twelve-to-fifteen-foot ceilings, and large windows six to seven feet above the floor. No architectural style was recommended for the exterior, nor was it necessary to put Andrew Carnegie's name on the building. In the interests of efficiency, fireplaces were discouraged, since that wall space could be used to house more books.

There were no strict requirements about furniture, but most of it came from the Library Bureau, established by Melvil Dewey in 1888. It sold standardized chairs, tables, catalogs, and bookshelves.

Self-service stacks

The first five Carnegie libraries followed a closed stacks policy, the method of operation common to libraries at that time. Patrons requested a book from a library staffer, who would fetch the book from closed stacks off limits to the public, and bring it to a delivery desk.

To reduce operating costs, Carnegie created a revolutionary open-shelf or self-service policy, beginning with the Pittsburgh neighborhood branches that opened after the main branch. This streamlined process allowed patrons to have open access to shelves. Carnegie's architects designed the Pittsburgh neighborhood branches so that one librarian could oversee each entire operation.

Theft of books and other items was a major concern. This concern resulted in the placement of the library's circulation desk—which replaced the delivery desk used in traditional closed stacks libraries—just inside the front door. Bigger and more daunting than those used in modern libraries, these desks spanned almost the width of the lobby and acted as a physical and psychological barrier between the front entrance and the book room.

The first of these "open stack" branches was in Lawrenceville, the sixth Carnegie library to open in America. The next was in the West End branch, the eighth Carnegie library in the US. Patricia Lowry describes

"located just beyond the lobby, the circulation desk—no longer a delivery desk—took center stage in Lawrenceville, flanked by turnstiles that admitted readers to the open stacks one at a time, under the librarian's watchful eye. To thwart thievery, the stacks were arranged in a radial pattern. On each side of the lobby were a general reading room and, for the first time in a library anywhere, a room for children.... The reading rooms were separated by walls that became glass partitions above waist level—the better to see you with, my dear."

Walter E. Langsam, an architectural historian and teacher at the University of Cincinnati, wrote "The Carnegie libraries were important because they had open stacks which encouraged people to browse .... People could choose for themselves what books they wanted to read." This open stacks policy was later adopted by the libraries that previously had operated with closed stacks.

Criticisms
The first secretary of the Iowa Library Commission, Alice S. Taylor, criticized the use of Carnegie funding for extravagant buildings rather than providing quality library services. Carnegie's funds covered only the library buildings themselves, and Carnegie gave library buildings to cities on the condition that the cities stocked and maintained them. As a result, small communities often struggled with maintenance costs associated with Carnegie libraries; towns were often happy to accept funding for new library buildings, but often unwilling to allocate taxes for upkeep. In fact, this was the most frequent complaint about Carnegie libraries in hindsight: gifting libraries to towns too small to support them actually slowed the development of cooperative regional libraries that those communities now rely on.

Some critics also saw his massive donations as insulting to communities that would be content to fund their own public works. Others saw his push for public libraries as merely an attempt at social control. Mark Twain, a supporter of Carnegie, claimed that Carnegie used philanthropy as a tool to buy fame. William Jewett Tucker criticized Carnegie's philanthropy from a religious viewpoint, arguing that it did not offset his "immoral" accumulation of wealth, and that his contributions did not justify the "evils" Tucker claimed existed in capitalism itself. Carnegie's own steel workers echoed this sentiment, arguing that his wealth would be better spent on improving working conditions for his own employees, rather than on library buildings across the country. Carnegie's response to those criticisms and the ensuing Homestead Steel Strike was telling of what he thought of his workers' concerns: "If I had raised your wages, you would have spent that money by buying a better cut of meat or more drink for your dinner. But what you needed, though you didn't know it, was my libraries and concert halls."

Carnegie's critics can be most efficiently summed up in the words of Finley Peter Dunne's parody of Carnegie himself: "Th' way to abolish poverty an' bust crime is to put up a brown-stone buildin' in ivry town in th' counthry." The idea that a building would be the panacea to cure all of society's ills, they argued, was simply not sustainable.

A further issue was the impact on pre-existing religious libraries that had promoted learning through free libraries for many years. A typical example is the United Presbyterian Library of Edinburgh, under Robert James Drummond which was affected following the opening of the Carnegie Library in the city centre.

In addition to the criticisms of his philanthropic interests and motivations, the construction of libraries in the American South was a highly contentious topic. State and local racial segregations laws across the South sought to bar African Americans access to public facilities, including libraries and when funding the construction of the Carnegie library in Atlanta in 1902, the proposed library, a segregated one, was fought by numerous activists of the period, including W. E. B. Du Bois. In the years following, as the American Library Association continued to ignore the systematic implementation of Jim Crow in the South, the Carnegie Corporation also continued to acquiesce to the social norms of the day and even required communities seeking grants to base their appropriations "only upon the White population of the towns."

Continuing legacy
Carnegie established charitable trusts which have continued his philanthropic work. But they had reduced their investment in libraries even before his death. There has continued to be support for library projects, for example in South Africa.

In 1992, The New York Times reported that, according to a survey conducted by George Bobinski, dean of the School of Information and Library Studies at the State University at Buffalo, 1,554 of the 1,681 original Carnegie library buildings in the United States still existed, and 911 were still used as libraries. He found that 276 were unchanged, 286 had been expanded, 175 had been remodeled, 243 had been demolished, and others had been converted to other uses.

While hundreds of the library buildings have been adapted for use as museums, community centers, office buildings, residences, or other uses, more than half of those in the United States still serve their communities as libraries over a century after their construction. Many are located in what are now middle- to low-income neighborhoods. For example, Carnegie libraries still form the nucleus of the New York Public Library system in New York City, with 31 of the original 39 buildings still in operation; Carnegie Libraries operate in all 5 Boroughs of New York City across its three library systems. Also, the main library and eighteen branches of the Pittsburgh public library system are Carnegie libraries. The public library system there is named the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

In the late 1940s, the Carnegie Corporation of New York arranged for microfilming of the correspondence files relating to Andrew Carnegie's gifts and grants to communities for the public libraries and church organs. They discarded the original materials. The microfilms are open for research as part of the Carnegie Corporation of New York Records collection, residing at Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Archivists did not microfilm photographs and blueprints of the Carnegie Libraries. The number and nature of documents within the correspondence files varies widely. Such documents may include correspondence, completed applications and questionnaires, newspaper clippings, illustrations, and building dedication programs.

UK correspondence files relating to individual libraries have been preserved in Edinburgh (see the article List of Carnegie libraries in Europe).

Beginning in the 1930s during the Great Depression, some libraries were meticulously measured, documented and photographed under the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) program of the National Park Service. This was part of an effort to record and preserve significant buildings.. Other documentation has been collected by local historical societies. In 1935, the centennial of Carnegie's birth, a copy of the portrait of him originally painted by F. Luis Mora was given to libraries which he had helped fund. Many of the Carnegie libraries in the United States, whatever their current uses, have been recognized by listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The first, the Carnegie Library in Braddock, Pennsylvania, was designated as a National Historic Landmark in March 2012. Some Carnegie Libraries, have been replaced in name with that of city libraries such as the Epiphany library in New York City.

Lists of Carnegie libraries

 * List of Carnegie libraries in Africa
 * List of Carnegie libraries in the Caribbean
 * List of Carnegie libraries in Oceania
 * List of Carnegie libraries in Canada
 * List of Carnegie libraries in Europe
 * List of Carnegie libraries in the United States

title: Carnegie library


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Itihasa-Purana

In Hinduism, Itihasa-Purana, also called the fifth Veda, refers to the traditional accounts of cosmogeny, myths, royal genealogies of the lunar dynasty and solar dynasty, and legendary past events, as narrated in the Itahasa (Mahabharata and the Ramayana) and the Puranas. They are highly influential in Indian culture, and many classical Indian poets derive the plots of their poetry and drama from the Itihasa. The Epic-Puranic chronology derived from the Itihasa-Puranais an influential frame of reference in traditional Indian thought.

Etymology
Itihāsa, इतिहास, derived from the phrase iti ha āsa इति ह आस, which means "so indeed it was".

Puranas, ; पुराण,  literally means "ancient, old."

Characterisation
Itihasa refers to the Sanskrit Epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The Puranas are a vast genre of Hindu literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about cosmogony, myths, legends and purported history. Together they are also called the fifth Veda, "the Holy Book of the masses who were not entitled to study the four Vedas."

The tradition of Itihāsa is generally understood to be developed by the bardic tradition of Sūtas and Cāraṇas whose duties consisted of composing royal eulogies.

In the mythical narratives of the Itihasa-Purana there is no clear distinction between mythology, hagiography and historiography. The Indian tradition regards the Itihasa-Purana as authoritative historical writings, documenting past events and prescribing dharma, the right way tho live. The Itihasa-Purana forms the basis for the Epic-Puranic chronology, the traditional timeline of legendary history. The Mahabharata includes the story of the Kurukshetra War and preserves the traditions of the Lunar dynasty in the form of embedded tales. The Ramayana contains the story of Rama and is incidentally related to the legends of the Solar dynasty. The Puranas provide the idea of Yugas, and the Dashavatara, the ten incarnations of Vishnu in the four respective Yuga's.

Yuga
According to the Hindu texts, time is cyclic. The history of mankind is divided into four ages—Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga—collectively forming one Maha Yuga. Seventy-one Maha Yugas form a Manvantara ("age of Manu"), a period of time over which a "Manu" presides. For the duration of his period, each Manu is the archetypal first man, the progenitor of humanity, and also the first king and lawgiver. Along with a Manu, every Manvantara also has its own set of Indra, gods and the seven sages. Fourteen Manus reign in Kalpa, (a single day in the life of) Brahma), an equivalent of 1,000 Maha Yugas, at the end of which, the creation is destroyed and is followed by a Pralaya (dissolution) of equal length. The creation starts again, in the next Kalpa in an endless cycle of creations and dissolutions.

Dashavatara
The Dashavatara refers to the ten primary (i.e. full or complete) incarnations (avatars) of Vishnu, the Hindu god of preservation which has Rigvedic origins. Vishnu is said to descend in the form of an avatar to restore cosmic order. The word Dashavatara derives from, meaning "ten", and avatar , roughly equivalent to "incarnation".

Various versions of the list of Vishnu's avatars exist, varying per region and tradition. Some lists mention Krishna as the eighth avatar and the Buddha as the ninth avatar, while others – such as the Yatindramatadipika, a 17th-century summary of Srivaisnava doctrine – give Balarama as the eighth avatar and Krishna as the ninth. The latter version is followed by some Vaishnavas who do not accept the Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu. Though no list can be uncontroversially presented as standard, the "most accepted list found in Puranas and other texts is [...] Krishna, Buddha."

The following table summarises the position of avatars within the Dashavatara in many but not all traditions:

Royal genealogies
The Solar Dynasty and Lunar dynasty were two legendary principal dynasties of the Kshatriyas varna, or warrior–ruler class mentioned in the ancient Indian texts. They trace their origin to Vaivasvata Manu, who presides over the present, seventh manvatara.

According to Harivamsa, Ikshvaku was the son of Vaivasvata Manu, and the primogenitor of the Suryavamsha, or the Solar Dynasty, and was granted the kingdom of Aryavarta by his father Vaivasvata Manu. Vaivasvata Manu settled down in the Aryavarta region after he survived the Great Flood that ended the sixth mamanvatara. A. K. Mozumdar states that Manu is the one who built a city on the Sarayu (the river that his mother Sanjana was the goddess of) and called it Ayodhya, meaning the 'invincible city'. This city served as the capital of many kings from the solar dynasty and is also believed to be the birthplace of Rama.

The Lunar dynasty (IAST: Candravaṃśa) is said to be descended from moon-related deities (Soma or Chandra). According to the Shatapatha Brahmana, Pururavas was the son of Budha (himself often described as the son of Soma) and the gender-switching deity Ila (born as the daughter of Manu). Pururavas's great-grandson was Yayati, who had five sons named Yadu, Turvasu, Druhyu, Anu, and Puru. These seem to be the names of five Vedic tribes as described in the Vedas.

Influence on classical Indian poetry
Many classical Indian poets derive the plots of their poetry and drama from the Itihasa. The rules of classical Indian poetics prescribe that the themes of the mahakavyas (ornate epics) and natakas (drama) should primarily be selected from the itihasa. In accordance, great mahakavyas such as Kalidasa’s Raghuvamsa, Kumaradasa’s Janaki-harana, Bhatti's Ravanavadha (or Bhattikavya) have drawn their themes from the Ramayana, and Bharavi’s Kiratarjuniya, Magha’s Sisupalavadha and Sriharsa's Naisadhiyacarita from the Mahabharata.

Historical Consciousness
The belief that South Asian society lacked historical consciousness until colonial times persists, as colonial writers like Robert Orme and James Mill argued that rational, factual history emerged in India only with British rule. They claimed pre-colonial Indian history, seen as mythic, did not meet modern standards because it was too formulaic and lacked historical context. But this notion has also been challenged. Kumkum Chatterjee, focused on a vernacular tradition of Itihasa/Purana in early modern Bengal, argued that these narratives are based on historical experiences derived from Mughal rule in Bengal and much of India during the 17th and 18th centuries. Puranas have evolved over time, constantly updated to reflect changing social conditions. They traditionally cover creation myths, cosmic cycles, genealogies, divine exploits, and royal histories, but they also include additional content like sectarian deities and social norms.

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

title: Itihasa-Purana


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Flag of Oklahoma

The flag of Oklahoma, also known as the Oklahoma flag, is a rectangular field of sky blue on which is placed an Osage war shield with six crosses and seven pendant eagle feathers above the word 'Oklahoma' in white. Superimposed onto the crosses of the war shield is a calumet (peace pipe) and an olive branch.

History

Oklahoma's first flag was adopted in 1911, four years after statehood. The flag featured a large centered white star fimbriated in blue on a red field. The number 46 was written in blue inside the star, as Oklahoma was the forty-sixth state to join the Union. It was designed by Ruth D. Clement, a founder of the state branch of the Daughters of the Confederacy.

A contest, sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution, was held in 1924 to replace the flag, as red flags were closely associated with the red flag of communism. The winning entry by Louise Fluke, of Shawnee, Oklahoma, which was adopted as the state flag on April 2, 1925, resembled the current flag without the word Oklahoma on it. That word was added in 1941 as part of an effort to combat widespread illiteracy, although there is no evidence the change to the flag played any significant role in such.

Design
The official design of the flag of Oklahoma has remained the same since 1941, however, unauthorized flag designs became prevalent throughout the state, so much so that the correct and official design of the flag was becoming lost. These unauthorized flags displayed stylized eagle feathers, incorrectly shaped crosses, an incorrectly shaped pipe, wrong colors, or combinations of these and other errors. In 2005, an Oklahoma Boy Scout leader designing patches for a National Jamboree contingent was looking for an image of the Oklahoma state flag and noticed that there were multiple unauthorized designs of the Oklahoma state flag displayed on state government, historical, and educational websites. With some research he was able to identify the official design to use, but because of the prevalence of unauthorized designs, he contacted his state representative, and was the impetus to standardize the colors and shapes by Oklahoma Senate Bill 1359 and signed into law by Governor Brad Henry on May 23, 2006, taking effect on November 1, 2006.

In 2001, the North American Vexillological Association surveyed its members on the designs of the 72 U.S. state, territorial, and Canadian provincial flags and ranked the Oklahoma flag 39th.

Symbolism
The flag of Oklahoma is one of two U.S. state flags (along with New Mexico) to depict distinct Native American iconography. The blue field represents devotion and loyalty. The shield surmounted by the pipe and olive branch represents defensive or protective warfare, showing a love of peace by a united people. The flag of Oklahoma closely resembles the flag of the Choctaw Nation carried into battle by men of the Second Indian Brigade or "Choctaw Brigade" during the American Civil War. The Choctaw flag, a replica of which hung in the Oklahoma Historical Museum, having been described as a rectangular field of blue, on which was placed a large red circular war shield bordered by a band of white; superimposed upon the face of the shield was a white bow, two arrows, and tomahawk crossed at right angles.

Display and use
In 2015, a new specialty license plate honoring the first flag was authorized by the legislature and signed into law. A minimum of 100 pre-orders were required and fulfilled.

Salute
The state legislature adopted the following salute to the flag in 1982:

"I salute the Flag of the State of Oklahoma: Its symbols of peace unite all people."

title: Flag of Oklahoma


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Ananke

In ancient Greek religion, Ananke (Ἀνάγκη), from the common noun ἀνάγκη ("force, constraint, necessity"), is the Orphic personification of inevitability, compulsion and necessity. She is customarily depicted as holding a spindle. One of the Greek primordial deities, the births of Ananke and her brother and consort, Chronos (the personification of time, not to be confused with the Titan Cronus), were thought to mark the division between the eon of Chaos and the beginning of the cosmos. Ananke is considered the most powerful dictator of fate and circumstance. Mortals and gods alike respected her power and paid her homage. She is also considered the mother of the Fates, hence she is thought to be the only being to overrule their decisions (according to some sources, excepting Zeus also). According to Daniel Schowalter and Steven Friesen, she and the Fates "are all sufficiently tied to early Greek mythology to make their Greek origins likely."

The ancient Greek traveller Pausanias wrote of a temple in ancient Corinth where the goddesses Ananke and Bia (meaning force, violence or violent haste) were worshiped together in the same shrine. Ananke is also frequently identified or associated with Aphrodite, especially Aphrodite Urania, the representation of abstract celestial love; the two were considered to be related, as relatively unanthropomorphised powers that dictated the course of life. Her Roman counterpart is Necessitas ("necessity").

Etymology
"Ananke" is derived from the common Ancient Greek noun ἀνάγκη (Ionic: ἀναγκαίη anankaiē), meaning "force, constraint or necessity." The common noun itself is of uncertain etymology. Homer refers to her being as necessity, often abstracted in modern translation (ἀναγκαίη πολεμίζειν, "it is necessary to fight") or force (ἐξ ἀνάγκης, "by force"). In Ancient Greek literature the word is also used meaning "fate" or "destiny" (ἀνάγκη δαιμόνων, "fate by the daemons or by the gods"), and by extension "compulsion or torture by a superior." She appears often in poetry, as Simonides does: "Even the gods don't fight against ananke".

The pre-modern is carried over and translated (by reduction) into a more modern philosophical sense as "necessity", "logical necessity", or "laws of nature".

Mythology
In Orphic mythology, Ananke is a self-formed being who emerged at the dawn of creation with an incorporeal, serpentine form, her outstretched arms encompassing the cosmos. Ananke and Chronos are mates, mingling together in serpent form as a tie around the universe. Together, they have crushed the primal egg of creation of which constituent parts became earth, heaven and sea to form the ordered universe. Ananke is the mother (or another identity) of Adrasteia, the distributor of rewards and punishments.

In the Orphic hymns, Aphrodite Urania is described as the mother of Ananke and ruler of the three Moirai: "Ourania, illustrious, laughter-loving queen, sea-born, night-loving, of an awful mien;

Crafty, from whom Ananke first came, producing, nightly, all-connecting dame:

'Tis thine the world with harmony to join, for all things spring from thee, O pow'r divine.

The triple Moirai are rul'd by thy decree, and all productions yield alike to thee"

Mother of the Moirai
The Greek philosopher Plato in his Republic discussed the parentage of the Moirai or the Fates in the following lines: "And there were another three who sat round about at equal intervals, each one on her throne, the Moirai (Moirae, Fates), daughters of Ananke, clad in white vestments with filleted heads, Lakhesis (Lachesis), and Klotho (Clotho), and Atropos (Atropus), who sang in unison with the music of the Seirenes, Lakhesis singing the things that were, Klotho the things that are, and Atropos the things that are to be . . . Lakhesis, the maiden daughter of Ananke (Necessity)."

Aeschylus, the famous tragedian, gave an account in his Prometheus Bound where the Moirai were called the helmsman of the goddess Ananke along with the three Erinyes: "Prometheus: Not in this way is Moira (Fate), who brings all to fulfillment, destined to complete this course. Only when I have been bent by pangs and tortures infinite am I to escape my bondage. Skill is weaker by far than Ananke (Necessity). Chorus: Who then is the helmsman of Ananke (Necessity)? Prometheus: The three-shaped (trimorphoi) Moirai (Moirae, Fates) and mindful (mnêmones) Erinyes (Furies). Chorus: Can it be that Zeus has less power than they do? Prometheus: Yes, in that even he cannot escape what is foretold. Chorus: Why, what is fated for Zeus except to hold eternal sway? Prometheus: This you must not learn yet; do not be over-eager. Chorus: It is some solemn secret, surely, that you enshroud in mystery."Here Prometheus speaks of a secret prophecy, rendered ineluctable by Ananke, that any son born of Zeus and Thetis would depose the god. (In fact, any son of Thetis was destined to be greater than his father.)

In philosophical thought
In the Timaeus, Plato has the character Timaeus (not Socrates) argue that in the creation of the universe, there is a uniting of opposing elements, intellect ('nous') and necessity ('ananke'). Elsewhere, Plato blends abstraction with his own myth making: "For this ordered world (cosmos) is of a mixed birth: it is the offspring of a union of Necessity and Intellect. Intellect prevailing over Necessity by persuading (from Peitho, goddess of persuasion) it to direct most of the things that come to be toward what is best, and the result of this subjugation of Necessity to wise persuasion is the initial formation of the universe". In Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame of Paris, the word "Ananke" is written upon a wall of Notre-Dame by the hand of Dom Claude Frollo. In his Toute la Lyre, Hugo also mentions Ananke as a symbol of love. In 1866, he wrote:

Sigmund Freud in Civilization and Its Discontents (p. 140) said: "We can only be satisfied, therefore, if we assert that the process of civilization is a modification which the vital process experiences under the influence of a task that is set it by Eros and instigated by Ananke — by the exigencies of reality; and that this task is one of uniting separate individuals into a community bound together by libidinal ties."

Wallace Stevens, in a poem of the 1930s, writes: "The sense of the serpent in you, Ananke, / And your averted stride / Add nothing to the horror of the frost / That glistens on your face and hair." This connects with Stevens's sense of necessity or fate in his later work, especially in the collection The Auroras of Autumn.

Robert Bird's essay "Ancient Terror", inspired by Léon Bakst's painting Terror Antiquus, speculates on the evolution of Greek religion, tracing it to an original belief in a single, supreme goddess. Vyacheslav Ivanov suggests that the ancients viewed all that is human and all that is revered as divine as relative and transient: "Only Fate (Eimarmene), or universal necessity (Ananke), the inevitable 'Adrasteia,' the faceless countenance and hollow sound of unknown Destiny, was absolute." Before the goddess, who is both indestructible Force of Love and absolute Fate the Destroyer, Life-Giver and Fate-Death, as well as incorporating Mnemosyne (Memory) and Gaia (Mother Earth), masculine daring and warring are impotent and transient, and the masculine order imposed by Zeus and the other Olympian Gods is artificial.

title: Ananke


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Flag of Pennsylvania

The flag of Pennsylvania consists of a blue field on which the state coat of arms is displayed.

History
On April 9, 1799, the Pennsylvania General Assembly authorized the use of the state coat of arms on flags for the state militia. These flags took various forms, most commonly featuring the coat of arms either replacing the field of stars in the union of the US flag, or being placed alone on a field of blue. The depiction of the coat of arms would also vary from flag to flag, as the colors in the escutcheon of the arms were changed in 1809, and the color of the horses was not standardized until 1875.

The legislature eventually chose to create a standardized flag for general use, featuring a now-standardized coat of arms alone on a plain field of blue mandated to be the "same color as the blue field in the flag of the United States". This new flag was enacted by law on June 13, 1907.

Criticism and attempts to change the flag
The Pennsylvania flag has been criticized for the complexity of its design, and its inability to stand out from other similar state flags across the US. Several attempts have been made by the Pennsylvania legislature and the public to address these criticisms by changing or altering the flag.

2001 NAVA Survey
In 2001, the North American Vexillological Association surveyed 100 of its members and 337 members of the general public on the designs of the 72 U.S. state, U.S. territorial and Canadian provincial flags. The survey ranked Pennsylvania's flag 57th out of the 72, with a score of 3.69 on a scale of 0 to 10. Its low ranking was attributed to both the complexity of the coat of arms on its design, and its inability to stand out among a sea of similar “seal on a bedsheet” designs common to more than half of U.S. state flags.

Attempts to add "Pennsylvania" to the flag (2004–2014)
Between 2004 and 2014, several attempts were made to add the word "Pennsylvania" to the state flag. According to former State Representative Tim Solobay (who introduced the first set of bills), this was intended to make Pennsylvania's flag more unique and identifiable.

While the bill failed to leave committee in the first two sessions it was introduced, a 2006 survey offered by Solobay's office to help refine the defined design may have swayed legislators to act on the bill, which was amended on May 7, 2007. On June 11, 2007, The Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted in favor of the bill, 164–31. The Senate State Government Committee never considered the bill, which died at the end of the Pennsylvania General Assembly's two-year session.

The bill was reintroduced by Solobay in 2009, and on the next session day, a second similar bill was introduced by former State Representative Gary Haluska with a competing definition of the design. Neither bill was raised in committee that session. Haluska's proposal was reintroduced alone in both the 2011–12 and 2013–14 sessions, and died in committee both times.

The Keystone Flag
In 2017 the "Keystone Flag" was designed by Tara Stark, a Pennsylvania resident. The flag incorporates the keystone, a symbol already used in official capacities by the Pennsylvania National Guard and departments within the government of Pennsylvania into a tricolor design using the colors on the coat of arms of Pennsylvania as an intentional callback to the symbolism of the existing flag.

The flag gained popularity in online vexillological circles, winning multiple online contests, and began receiving wider attention following high-profile changes to the flag of Mississippi and the flag of Utah. The design was formally released into the public domain in August 2022. Stark launched a Kickstarter campaign in November 2022 to print flags and create other merchandise featuring the design, raising more than $4,500, and the design later began being sold by multiple unrelated manufacturers. It has since seen more popular use, notably including on a lapel pin worn by one state legislator, and has been referenced by multiple media outlets.

2023 effort
On June 16, 2023, Pennsylvania State Representative Joe Webster released a memorandum proposing a commission to "study the history of the state flag, solicit design submissions for a new state flag, and recommend changes to the state flag." To this end, House Resolution 163 was introduced on June 27, 2023.

title: Flag of Pennsylvania


text:
User:Sindri~enwiki

Sindri Traustason Mobile blog is:User:Sindri

title: User:Sindri~enwiki


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Flag of Rhode Island

The flag of the state of Rhode Island, United States, is white and consists of a gold anchor in the center (a symbol for hope) surrounded by thirteen gold stars (for the original Thirteen Colonies and Rhode Island's status as the 13th state to ratify the Constitution). A blue ribbon below the anchor bears the state's motto in gold: "HOPE". The flag is frequently depicted with golden fringe around the edges of the flag, although the fringe is never actually on the flag unless it is used in federal-level displays, much like the national flag.

History
The present flag of the state of Rhode Island was formally adopted in 1897. As early as the 1640s, the anchor and "hope" were found on the Rhode Island seal, and the seal's words and emblems were likely inspired by the biblical phrase "hope we have as an anchor of the soul," found in Hebrews, Verse 6:18-19. Rhode Island's earliest colonists were fleeing persecution in Massachusetts due to their religious beliefs.

Statute
The state of Rhode Island enacted legislation making this the official flag: § 42-4-3 State flag. – The flag of the state shall be white, five feet and six inches (5'6") fly and four feet and ten inches (4'10") deep on the pike, bearing on each side in the center a gold anchor, twenty-two inches (22") high, and underneath it a blue ribbon twenty-four inches (24") long and five inches (5") wide, or in these proportions, with the motto "Hope" in golden letters thereon, the whole surrounded by thirteen (13) golden stars in a circle. The flag shall be edged with yellow fringe. The pike shall be surmounted by a spearhead and the length of the pike shall be nine feet (9'), not including the spearhead.

Other flags
Another commonly flown flag is the flag of the Rhode Island Regiment. Many houses throughout the state display the flag alongside the current flag, or in lieu of the state flag. The flag can also be seen flying at home football games of the University of Rhode Island Rams.

Flag of the governor
The flag of the governor of Rhode Island is based on an earlier state flag. Like most U.S. governors' flags, there are four five-point stars at the corners of the field.

title: Flag of Rhode Island