This will be our last day looking at Sloss Furnaces. The bridge above has an interesting story; it was built to take traffic above the giant piles of slag the furnace dumped on the ground (it’s been cleaned up, obviously). Above, as you can see, the ingots of pig iron, which is not pure enough…
Tag: Museums
Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham, Alabama, Part Three
We continued on our way through the Sloss Furnaces, looking at the smokestacks for the massive boilers that burned the coke to produced the superheated temperatures that broke up the iron ore. I was curious how these molten iron cars look different compared to various parts of the country. They are of type not seen…
Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham, Alabama, Part Two
We now enter the Sloss Furnaces complex, and walk around the public path on the southeast portion of the grounds. Above is a photograph of the furnaces before the 1930s refitting. We walked by a tunnel that was unfortunately flooded the day we visited, but much of the material in the smelting process moved back…
Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham, Alabama, Part One
As I mentioned on our first day introducing Birmingham, all three of the components for making steel was readily available in close proximity to the city. Iron ore, in fact, could be found at Red Mountain, which is about a mile south from downtown. The iron ore was taken to blast facilities such as the…
From the Vault: The Roof of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, October 2006
It’s hard to believe that just under twenty years ago I was allowed to run around on the roof of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and take these photographs. Above is looking west down Constitution Avenue NW and the National Archives and Federal Triangle. Above, this is looking east at the U.S….
Nauvoo, Illinois
We visited the historic Mormon settlement of Nauvoo on our journey north up the Mississippi River looking at Iowa cities back in May. Of course, Nauvoo is in Illinois, and it is in an isolated corner of the state. There are numerous houses and other buildings from the historic period that have been restored, and…
Old Courthouse, Reopened
The Old Courthouse is looking great following years of being closed for the first renovation in decades. All exhibitions were removed and replaced with new ones, such as this one on the courthouse’s role in freedom suits and slavery. Of course, that story would be incomplete without including Harriet and Dred Scott, whose nationally influential…
Saint Louis Art Museum, Nighttime
I was up at the Saint Louis Art Museum almost until close and snapped these photos with the night sky behind it.
Four Historic Districts, Bloomington, Illinois, Part Three: Davis-Jefferson
The centerpiece of the Davis-Jefferson Historic District, east of the center of Bloomington is the David Davis House, Clover Lawn, whose estate clearly once encompassed much of the surrounding blocks. Davis was actually a friend and ally of Abraham Lincoln and served on the Supreme Court after being appointed by the President. French American architect…
Cherokee Cave at the Saint Louis Science Center
If you’re looking to do something fun the day after Christmas with the family, take a trip by the Saint Louis Science Center and check out a cool exhibit from the permanent collections. In addition to some other cool stuff, including pieces from the former Museum of Quackery, there is a whole room dedicated to…