Passage 1:
Princess Florestine of Monaco
Princess Florestine Gabrielle Antoinette of Monaco (22 October 1833 – 4 April 1897) was the youngest child and only daughter of Florestan I, Prince of Monaco, and his wife, Maria Caroline Gibert de Lametz. Florestine was a member of the House of Grimaldi and a Princess of Monaco by birth and a member of the House of Württemberg and Duchess consort of Urach and Countess of Württemberg through her marriage to Wilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach.

Marriage and issue
Florestine married Count Wilhelm of Württemberg (later Wilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach), son of Duke Wilhelm of Württemberg and his morganatic wife Baroness Wilhelmine von Tunderfeldt-Rhodis, on 15 February 1863 in Monaco. Florestine and Wilhelm had two sons:

Wilhelm Karl Florestan Gero Crescentius (1864–1928), Count of Württemberg, 2nd Duke of Urach, and nominally King of Lithuania as Mindaugas II of Lithuania∞ 1892 Duchess Amalie in Bavaria (1865-1912), eldest daughter of the Duke Karl-Theodor in Bavaria
∞ 1924 Princess Wiltrud Alix Marie of Bavaria (1884-1975), sixth daughter of Ludwig III of BavariaJosef Wilhelm Karl Florestan Gero Crescentius (1865–1925), Prince of UrachFlorestine's husband Wilhelm had converted to Roman Catholicism in 1841, for his first marriage to Théodolinde de Beauharnais, who died in 1857.

Monaco Succession Crisis of 1918
Florestine, according to the rules governing succession to the throne of Monaco, was able to marry without relinquishing her rights. When her grandnephew Louis II, Prince of Monaco, ascended to the Monegasque throne, Florestine's son Wilhelm claimed his rights for his succession to the princely throne of Monaco and the Grimaldi noble titles. However, France had undergone two wars against Germany and did not wish to see German princes ruling the Principality of Monaco. Therefore, France reached an agreement with the principality allowing the illegitimate daughter of Louis II, Charlotte, to be his heir presumptive to the princely throne and Grimaldi noble titles. Charlotte renounced and ceded her rights to the princely throne on 30 May 1944 to her son Rainier who became Rainier III, Prince of Monaco.

Honours
Württemberg: Dame of the Order of Olga, 1871 -
 Spain: Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa

Ancestry
Passage 2:
Charles III, Prince of Monaco
Charles III (Charles Honoré Grimaldi; 8 December 1818 – 10 September 1889) was Prince of Monaco and Duke of Valentinois from 20 June 1856 to his death. He was the founder of the famous casino in Monte Carlo, as his title in Monegasque and Italian was Carlo III. He was born in Paris, the only son of Florestan, Prince of Monaco, and Maria Caroline Gibert de Lametz.

Marriage and reign
While he was Hereditary Prince, Charles was married on 28 September 1846 in Brussels to Countess Antoinette de Mérode-Westerloo.He succeeded his father Prince Florestan in 1856.
During his reign, the towns of Menton and Roquebrune, constituting some 80 percent of Monegasque territory, were formally ceded to France, paving the way for formal French recognition of Monaco's independence. Rebellions in these towns, aided by the Kingdom of Sardinia, had exhausted Monaco's military resources for decades.The Principality was in dire need of cash flow, so Prince Charles and his mother, Princess Caroline, had the idea of erecting a casino. The Monte Carlo Casino was designed, according to the Prince's liking, in the German style and placed at the site of Les Spélugues. Monte Carlo (in English, Mount Charles) itself takes its name from Charles, after all its founder. Charles established a society (business) to run the Casino; this society is today the Société des bains de mer de Monaco.Under Charles III, the Principality of Monaco increased its diplomatic activities; for example, in 1864, Charles III concluded a Treaty of Friendship with the Bey of Tunis, Muhammad III as-Sadiq, which also regulated trade and maritime issues.

Honours
Monte Carlo is named after Charles III. It stands for the "Mount Charles" in Italian.
The Order of Saint-Charles was instituted on 15 March 1858, during the reign of Prince Charles III.He received the following decorations and awards:

 Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, with Collar, 27 March 1863 (Sweden-Norway)
 Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog, in Brilliants, 16 February 1865 (Denmark)
 Grand Cross of the Grand Ducal Hessian Order of Ludwig, 17 April 1865 (Grand Duchy of Hesse)
 Grand Cross of the Royal and Distinguished Order of Charles III, 17 February 1867 (Spain)
 Grand Cross of the Order of the Red Eagle, 7 July 1869 (Kingdom of Prussia)
 Grand Cross of the Order of the Zähringer Lion, 1869 (Grand Duchy of Baden)
 Officer of the Legion d'Honneur, for his service in the French Navy in the Franco-Prussian War (French Empire)
 Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (civil division), 30 August 1874 (Belgium)
 Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen, 1882 (Austria-Hungary)
 Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the White Eagle (civil division), 29 May 1883 (Kingdom of Serbia)
 Knight of the Supreme Order of Christ (Holy See)
 Grand Cross of the Royal Military Order of the Tower and Sword (Kingdom of Portugal)

Death
In his middle years his sight greatly weakened, and by the last decade of his life he had become almost totally blind. In fact, Dr. Thomas Henry Pickering wrote in 1882: "So far back as 1860, Prince Charles lost his eyesight...."He died at Château de Marchais on 10 September 1889. He was succeeded by his son Albert I of Monaco.

Coin
On 1 June 2016, fifteen thousand 2 euro coins were issued by Monaco; commemorating the 150th anniversary of the foundation of Monte
Carlo by Charles III

In literature
Charles III is referenced, as Prince Charles Honoré, in a fictional entitled, The Fall of Prince Florestan of Monaco, by the British politician Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke. This work was one of satire and parody on a number of political characters of the day. It centered around a Cambridge-educated, half-Württemberg nephew of Charles III who comes to the throne by way of Charles III and the next two heirs being wiped out of existence. The upstart "Florestan II", a radical republican, boldly attempts to democratize Monaco. He fails and then is forced to leave the country.

Ancestry
Passage 3:
Marian Shields Robinson
Marian Lois Robinson (née Shields; born July 29, 1937) is the mother of Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States, and Craig Robinson, a basketball executive. She is the mother-in-law of 44th U.S. President Barack Obama.

Ancestry and early life
Marian Shields was born in Chicago in 1937, the fourth of seven children—five girls, followed by two boys—born to Purnell Nathaniel Shields, a house painter and carpenter, and his wife Rebecca Jumper, a licensed practical nurse. Both parents had multi-racial ancestry. Her mother's grandfather, Dolphus T. Shields (c. 1860–1950), was a direct descendant of slavery, with his mother a slave and his white father the heir of the slaveowner; he had moved from rural Georgia to Birmingham, Alabama, where he established his own carpentry and tool sharpening business. His descendants would eventually move to Chicago during the Great Migration.

Personal life
Shields married Fraser Robinson III on October 27, 1960, in Chicago. They had two children together, Craig Malcolm and Michelle LaVaughn, named after Fraser's mother. She worked as a secretary for mail-order retailer Spiegel, the University of Chicago, and a bank. In the late 60's, Shields lived with her family in a rented second floor apartment of a brick bungalow the South Side of Chicago that belonged to her aunt Robbie and her husband Terry. This is where she raised her two children, Michelle and Craig, and continued to live until she eventually moved to the White House with the Obamas. Michelle Obama, in her book Becoming, describes her mother's strong attachment to her Chicago home and her commitment to raising her children as a stay at home mother. Shields resumed work as an executive assistant at a bank when her daughter Michelle started high school.

Relationship with Michelle Obama
Michelle describes her mother as forthright and honest, and speaks of her implacability and her silent support as a child and beyond. Shields used to take her daughter Michelle to the library long before she started school and used to sit beside her as she learned to read and write. Usually the kind of mother who expected her children to settle their own disputes, Shields was quick to see real distress and stepped in to help when needed. For example, when Michelle was in second grade and was distressed because of being devalued by a teacher, Shields advocated for her and was instrumental in getting her daughter better learning opportunities at school. Shields encouraged her children to communicate with her about all subjects by being available when needed and giving practical advice. She entertained Michelle's school friends when they visited and enabled her to make her own choices in important matters.

Obama campaign and life in the White House
While Michelle and Barack Obama campaigned for his candidacy as president in 2008, Robinson helped them by providing support to her granddaughters, Malia and Sasha Obama. During Barack Obama's presidency, Robinson was living at the White House with the First Family.
Passage 4:
Florestan I, Prince of Monaco
Florestan (Tancrède Florestan Roger Louis Grimaldi; 10 October 1785, in Paris – 20 June 1856) was Prince of Monaco and Duke of Valentinois from 2 October 1841 until his death. He was the second son of Prince Honoré IV and Louise d'Aumont Mazarin and succeeded to the throne on the death of his brother, Honoré V.

Early life, education, and military career
Brought up by his mother, he showed an early and strong aptitude for literature. At the age of eleven, he enrolled in the School of Fontainebleau, but did not stay there long. He entered the military, where he had many struggles and barely achieved the rank of Corporal. He was taken prisoner during the French invasion of Russia. He was not freed to return to France until 1814.

Marriage and children
Prince Florestan, age 29, married Maria Caroline Gibert de Lametz in Commercy on 27 November 1816. Apparently, his family disapproved of the union, so they had to marry "quietly and modestly." Florestan received only a small income from his family, so, as it turned out, his marriage to an upper-bourgeois family member of the province of Champagne was, in fact, "financially favorable."The marriage produced the following:

Charles III, Prince of Monaco (1818–1889)
Princess Florestine of Monaco (1833–1897)

Reign
Florestan was ill-prepared to assume the role of Sovereign Prince. Indeed, the British historian H. Pemberton wrote that, upon accession to the throne, Florestan was "a man utterly unsuited for the task before him." He had been an actor in the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique. The real power during his reign lay in the hands of his wife, Princess Caroline, who possessed great intelligence and "excelled at social skills." According to the historian Gustave Saige, Princess Caroline's intelligence was required to figure out the affairs of state, which Honoré V had handled absolutely by himself, not trusting anyone to advise or assist him. For some time, she was able, by tax reform, to alleviate the difficult economic situation stemming from the Congress of Vienna assigning Monaco as a protectorate of the Kingdom of Sardinia rather than France. At the time Monaco was surrounded by the Sardinian controlled County of Nice.
As unprepared as Florestan was for the affairs of the Principality, his ascendance to power upon the death of his brother was largely welcomed by the populace. "He was given a particularly warm reception by the people of Menton," wrote Saige in French. Saige attributed the cause for this to the relief widely felt at having a prince who was not invisible to the public; unlike Honoré V, Florestan went out in public. He even established a school in Menton, albeit an expensive one from which the princely couple attempted to meet local demands for democratic reforms and offered two constitutions to the local population, but these were rejected, particularly by the people of Menton, who were offered something better by King Charles Albert of Sardinia. When the Prince and Princess of Monaco saw that their efforts were doomed to failure, they handed over power to their son Charles (later Prince Charles III). This was, however, too little, too late. Encouraged by the French Revolution of 1848, the towns of Menton and Roquebrune revolted and declared themselves independent. Worse, the King of Sardinia garrisoned Menton, Florestan was dethroned, arrested, and imprisoned. Florestan was restored to the throne in 1849, but Menton and Roquebrune were lost forever.

Death and succession, 1856
Despite his good intentions, by the time of Florestan's death in Paris in 1856, Monaco was a country divided with few prospects for financial prosperity. His son Charles succeeded him.

Ancestry
Passage 5:
Maria Caroline Gibert de Lametz
Marie Caroline Gibert de Lametz, (18 July 1793 – 25 November 1879), was a French stage actress and a Princess Consort and regent de facto of Monaco by marriage to Florestan I, Prince of Monaco.

Life
She was the daughter of Charles-Thomas Gibert (b. 1765), who was a lawyer, and Marie-Françoise Le Gras de Vaubercey (1766–1842). The marriage of her parents ended in divorce, and she became the adopted stepdaughter of Antoine Rouyer de Lametz (1762–1836), Chevalier d'Empire and Knight of the Legion of Honour.
Marie Caroline was originally a stage actress, as was her future spouse, Florestan.  Maria Caroline Gibert de Lametz and Prince Florestan of Monaco, at that time both actors, married in Commercy on 27 November 1816 and had two children: Prince Charles III, and Princess Florestine.
She was described as a skillful businesswoman: she handled the economy of the family, and successfully managed the fortune her spouse inherited from his mother (who had excluded her eldest son from her will because of his illegitimate issue) in 1826.

Princess of Monaco
Florestan ascended to the throne in Monaco in 1841, but he was never prepared to assume the role of prince — he had been an actor in the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique — and the real power during his reign lay in the hands of his wife, who reportedly possessed great intelligence and "excelled at social skills."According to the historian Gustave Saige, Princess Caroline's intelligence was required to figure out the affairs of state, which Honoré V had handled absolutely by himself, not trusting anyone to advise or assist him.   By introducing a tax reform, she was able  to alleviate the difficult economic situation stemming from the Congress of Vienna assigning Monaco as a protectorate of the Kingdom of Sardinia rather than France.   Her involvement in state politics, however, gave bad publicity to Florestan.  When their son once reproached her for her de facto regent position, she replied that she ruled simply because she wanted to take responsibility for the welfare of the family.The couple attempted to meet local demands for greater democracy and offered two constitutions to the local population, but these were rejected, particularly by the people of Menton, who were given a better offer by King Charles Albert of Sardinia.    The Prince and Princess of Monaco then handed over power to their son Charles (later Prince Charles III).
Encouraged by the Revolutions of 1848, however, the towns of Menton and Roquebrune revolted and declared themselves independent.    The crisis worsened when the King of Sardinia garrisoned Menton,   Florestan was dethroned, arrested, and imprisoned.   Florestan was restored to the throne in 1849, but Menton and Roquebrune were lost forever.  They had hoped to be annexed by Sardinia, but this did not occur, and the towns remained in a state of political limbo until they were finally ceded to France in 1861.

Later life
After her husband's death in 1856, her son, Prince Charles III took over control of the throne, after having been well prepared to assume power by his mother.  Together, they worked towards laying the foundation for Monaco as a major resort destination.
She died on November 25, 1879.

Ancestry
Arms and emblems
Passage 6:
Maria Thins
Maria Thins (c. 1593 – 27 December 1680) was the mother-in-law of Johannes Vermeer and a member of the Gouda Thins family. She was raised in a devout Dutch Catholic family with two sisters and a brother. Outliving her parents and siblings, she received inheritances over the years, making her a wealthy woman. She married a prosperous brickmaker, Reynier Bolnes, in 1622. They had three children together, Catharina, Willem, and Cornelia. By 1635, Bolnes verbally and physically abused his wife and daughters. Thins moved to Delft with her daughters. Her son Willem stayed with his father. Thins was a wealthy woman due to the separation settlement of her husband in 1649 and the estates she inherited from her family.
Her daughter Catharina married Johannes Vermeer, an artist, art dealer, and operator of the family's inn in Delft. Vermeer and Catharina lived at Thins house by 1660. The couple had fifteen children, four of whom died in infancy. Raising nearly a dozen children strained Vermeer financially. He relied on the support from his mother-in-law. During the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1674), Vermeer became impoverished. Thins reduced the money she provided to Catharina and her husband due to the loss of income during that period. Vermeer died in 1675, and Thins died five years later. Catharina was the only one of Thins' children to survive her. Thins drew up her will to maximize what she could provide for her grandchildren and their education, while limiting how much might be taken by Catharina's creditors. Catharina died in 1687.

Early life
Maria was born c. 1593 in Gouda to a prominent Dutch Catholic family, Catharina van Hensbeeck (d. 1633) and William Thin (d. 1601). They lived in the house named De Trapjes (The Little Steps) in Gouda. Maria had three siblings, none of whom were married. Her sister Elisabeth became a nun. She also had a sister Cornelia and a brother Jan. Since none of her siblings married, Thins ultimately inherited a large estate. The family conducted mass in their home, while at the time it was illegal for a group of Roman Catholics to assemble in Gouda. The local sheriffs broke up a religious meeting at their house in 1619.Garrit Camerling (d. 1627) of Delft became her stepfather in 1605 when he married Catharina van Hensbeeck. She was related to Abraham Bloemaert (1566–1651) through her cousin Jan Geensz Thins. Before her marriage, Thins lived in Delft with a prosperous young woman who was her friend.

Marriage and children
In 1622, Maria Thins married Reynier Bolnes (ca. 1593–1676), a prominent and prosperous brickmaker. Thins was an heiress when she married, and she collected art, including several in the style of Utrecht Caravaggists.

Children
Thins had three children, the youngest of whom was Catharina Bolnes (c. 1631–1688), nicknamed Trijntge. She also had a son Willem, and a daughter Cornelia. Around 1635, Reynier became verbally and physically abusive with her and her children. At the age of nine, Catharina ran to neighbors because she thought that Reynier's abuse of Cornelia could kill her. Reynier confessed that he physically abused Cornelia and would do it again if Thins beat their son Willem. Reynier and Willem began eating separately from the female members of the family, and the father encouraged his son to be abusive and noncompliant with Thins.

Divided family
Thins moved to Delft in 1642 to get away from her abusive husband. Jan Geensz Thins, who was her guardian and cousin, purchased a home for her there the prior year. Jan became Thin's guardian following the early death of her father. Thins attained custody of her daughters in 1641 and moved with them to Delft. William stayed with his father, whose business began to fail. Thins lived on Oude Langendijk next to the Jesuit Catholic Church in the Catholic section of Delft called paepenhoek (the Papists' Corner).Thins received half of her husband's assets, a substantial amount, in 1649. By 1653, Reynier Bolnes was bankrupt. Thins derived income from annuities, interest income, and property rentals, including farmland. She also lived off of the capital of her investments. Thins and her sister Cornelia Thins (d. 1661) received a sizeable inheritance from their brother Jan Willemsz Thins following his death in 1651. Thins attained a comfortable standard of living of 15,000 or more guilders a year in the 1660s.Cornelia died in 1649. In 1664, Thin's son Willem, a jobless bachelor, was locked up in an institution after an argument with his mother, and for attacking Catharina, his pregnant sister, with a stick. In 1665, Maria Thins was entrusted with her son's property. She wrote a will, which limited Willem's share to the legal minimum of one sixth of her estate. She mentioned that he had been calling her names since his youth. Willem died in 1676.

The Vermeers
Thin's daughter, Catharina, came to know Johannes Vermeer and wished to marry him. Her mother disapproved of the marriage because he was not Catholic, and also likely because he was of a lower artisan class. By 1652, Vermeer helped his mother run the family's inn and was an art dealer, taking over his deceased father's business. Before they married, Thins stated that although she did not approve, she would not prevent Catharina and Vermeer from marrying. Vermeer likely converted from Reformed Protestant to Catholicism by the time of their union. Catharina and Vermeer married in Schipluy (present-day Schipluiden) on 20 April 1653. By December 1660, the Vermeers lived in the large house of his wealthy mother-in-law Maria Thins, described as a "strong-willed" woman. It was unusual at the time for married men and women to settle into the houses of their parents. Vermeer relied on Thin's residence and financial support to take care of his family.Vermeer painted in the artist's studio and sold art from the house. His works portray subjects with clothing and furnishings more luxurious than his own. Biographer Anthony Bailey claims that since Vermeer used models from his household, it is likely that he made a painting of his wife. He asserts that Catharina is depicted in A Lady Writing a Letter due to her "fond expression" and "concentrated gaze of the unseen painter."Thins played an essential role in their life. She was a devotee of the Jesuit order in the nearby Catholic Church, and this seems to have influenced Johannes and Catharina.They had eleven children at the time of Vermeer's death, four of their children died young between 1660 and 1673. Most of their children were born at Thin's house. Their third son was called Ignatius, after the founder of the Jesuit Order. Catharina inherited the Ben Repas estate following her Aunt Cornelia's death in February 1661.Thins hired Vermeer to manage financial issues for her in 1667 and 1675. He collected monies owed her, and he handled her investments. The Rampjaar (disaster year) following the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1674) was particularly hard on Vermeer's ability to make money as an artist and an art dealer. He had to take a loss on sales of works of art and was unable to sell his own works. His mother-in-law was financially strained during this period due to the loss of rental income from farmland due to the war. In one instance, she rented out land near Schoonhoven that was flooded to prevent the French army from crossing the Dutch Water Line. The farmland was not arable for a time. Thins reduced the money that she spent to support the Vermeers. In 1675, Vermeer went on several business trips for his mother-in-law, first to Gouda, when her husband had died, and then to Amsterdam. There Vermeer borrowed money by fraudulently using her name.Vermeer died and was buried on 15 December 1675. Unable to pay their debts, Catharina blamed the financial fallout of the war for their losses and petitioned for bankruptcy in April 1676. Ten of their eleven children were still underage when Vermeer died. Catharina continued to live at her mother's house with their children. After Vermeer's death, Maria Thins received The Art of Painting for her financial support of Catharina's family. Catharina paid off other debts with paintings or used them as surety until she paid off debts.

Later years and death
Thins died and was buried on 27 December 1680. The burial record states that she was the widow of Reijnier Bolnes. Thins crafted her will to maximize her grandchildren's support and education, preventing her estate from going to Catharina's creditors. The grandchildren were assigned a guardian, Hendrick van Eem, to look out for their interests. Catharina, considered responsible, was encouraged by her mother to ensure that her children were educated so that they could support themselves. Her daughter Catharina moved to Breda. Catharina Bolnes received "Holy Oil" on 23 December 1687, before being buried on 2 January 1688.

See also
Writing to Vermeer an opera depicting Maria Thins and Catharina Bolnes
Passage 7:
Cornelia (mother of the Gracchi)
Cornelia (c. 190s – c. 115 BC) was the second daughter of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, a Roman general prominent in the Second Punic War, and Aemilia Paulla. Although drawing similarities to prototypical examples of virtuous Roman women, such as Lucretia, Cornelia puts herself apart from the rest because of her interest in literature, writing, and her investment in the political careers of her sons. She was the mother of the Gracchi brothers, and the mother-in-law of Scipio Aemilianus.

Biography
Cornelia married Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, grandson of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, when he was already in middle age. The union proved to be a happy one, and together they had 12 children, which is very unusual by Roman standards. Six of them were boys and six were girls. Only three are known to have survived childhood: Sempronia, who married her cousin Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, and the two Gracchi brothers (Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus), who would defy the political institutions of Rome with their attempts at popular reforms.After her husband's death, she chose to remain a widow while still enjoying a princess-like status and set herself to educating her children. She even refused the marriage proposal of King Ptolemy VIII Physcon because she is made to be a virtuous and dutiful wife after the death of her only husband. However, her refusal could simply be justified by the fact that she had a desire for more independence and freedom in the manner in which her children were to be raised.Later in her life, Cornelia studied literature, Latin, and Greek. Cornelia took advantage of the Greek scholars she brought to Rome, notably the philosophers Blossius (from Cumae) and Diophanes (from Mytilene), who were to educate young men. She had been taught the importance of receiving an education and came to play an extensive role in her sons' education during the "bygone republican era," resulting in the creation of a "superior breed of Roman political leader." Cornelia always supported her sons Tiberius and Gaius, even when their actions outraged the conservative patrician families in which she was born. She took a lot of pride in them, comparing her children to "jewels" and other precious things, according to Valerius Maximus.
After their violent deaths, she retired from Rome to a villa in Misenum but continued to receive guests. Her villa saw the likes of many learned men, including Greek scholars, who came from all over the Roman world to read and discuss their ideas freely. Rome worshipped her virtues, and when she died at an advanced age, the city voted for a statue in her honor.

Role in the political careers of her children
It is important to note that M. I. Finely advances the argument that "the exclusion of women from any direct participation in political or governmental activity" was a normal practice in Ancient Roman society. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to characterize the extent of Cornelia's involvement in the political careers of her children, yet there is important evidence to support the fact that she was, at the very least, engaged.
A common social practice in Rome was extending the political line of a family through dynastic marriages, especially when two families were rising to power at about the same time. The marriage of Sempronia (Cornelia's daughter) to her cousin reaffirmed the continuation of the great Scipio lineage, seeing as though the legacy of Scipio Africanus had to be continued somehow. Scipio Aemilianus saw important growth in his political prestige as a result of this marriage, although not enough to compare to his brothers-in-law and their revolutionary political reforms.
One of the most important aspects of the life of Cornelia is her relationship with her adult sons. Most of the information that we have on her role during this time is what Plutarch wrote in both the Life of Tiberius Gracchus and the Life of Gaius Gracchus. She is portrayed as active during their political careers, especially during Gaius’.
Plutarch writes of how Gaius removed a law that disgraced Marcus Octavius, the tribune whom Tiberius had deposed, because Cornelia asked him to remove it.  Plutarch states that the people all approved of this out of respect for her (due to her sons and her father). Plutarch also writes that Cornelia may have helped Gaius undermine the power of the consul Lucius Opimius by hiring foreign harvesters to help provide resistance (which suggests that harvesters were supporters of the Gracchi).
Plutarch also writes that, when one of Gaius's political opponents attacked Cornelia, Gaius retorted:
"What," said he, "dost thou abuse Cornelia, who gave birth to Tiberius?" And since the one who had uttered the abuse was charged with effeminate practices, "With what effrontery," said Gaius, "canst thou compare thyself with Cornelia? Hast thou borne such children as she did? And verily all Rome knows that she refrained from commerce with men longer than thou hast, though thou art a man."
This remark suggests that the Gracchi used their mother's reputation as a chaste, noble woman to their advantage in their political rhetoric.

Cornelia's letter excerpts
The manuscripts of Cornelius Nepos, the earliest Latin biographer (ca. 110-24 BC), include several excerpts from a letter supposedly composed by Cornelia to Gaius (her younger son). If the letters are authentic, they would make Cornelia one of only four Roman women whose writings survive to the present day, and they would show how Roman women wielded considerable influence in political families. Additionally, this would make Cornelia the first woman in her own family who wrote and passed down the importance of writing to her posterity. The letters may be dated to just before Gaius' tribunate in 122 BC (Gaius would be killed the following year in 121 BC, over a decade after the death of his brother Tiberius in 133 BC). The wording in the letter is very interesting, insomuch as it uses the first person, is very assertive and displays copious amounts of raw emotion, which may have been new and unusual for a woman writing at that time, particularly to a man of such important social standing. The two excerpts read as follows:

"You will say that it is a beautiful thing to take on vengeance on enemies. To no one does this seem either greater or more beautiful than it does to me, but only if it is possible to pursue these aims without harming our country. But seeing as that cannot be done, our enemies will not perish for a long time and for many reasons, and they will be as they are now rather than have our country be destroyed and perish.
...

I would dare to take an oath solemnly, swearing that, except for those who have murdered Tiberius Gracchus, no enemy has foisted so much difficulty and so much distress upon me as you have because of the matters: you should have shouldered the responsibilities of all of those children whom I had in the past, and to make sure that I might have the least anxiety possible in my old age; and that, whatever you did, you would wish to please me most greatly; and that you would consider it sacrilegious to do anything of great significance contrary to my feelings, especially as I am someone with only a short portion of my life left. Cannot even that time span, as brief as it is, be of help in keeping you from opposing me and destroying our country? In the final analysis, what end will there be? When will our family stop behaving insanely? When will we cease insisting on troubles, both suffering and causing them? When will we begin to feel shame about disrupting and disturbing our country? But if this is altogether unable to take place, seek the office of tribune when I will be dead; as far as I am concerned, do what will please you, when I shall not perceive what you are doing. When I have died, you will sacrifice to me as a parent and call upon the god of your parent. At that time does it not shame you to seek prayers of those gods, whom you considered abandoned and deserted when they were alive and on hand? May Jupiter not for a single instant allow you to continue in these actions nor permit such madness to come into your mind. And if you persist, I fear that, by your own fault, you may incur such trouble for your entire life that at no time would you be able to make yourself happy."

In the early 40s BC, Cicero, Nepos's contemporary, referenced Cornelia's letters. Cicero portrayed his friend Atticus as arguing for the influence of mothers on children's speech by noting that the letters' style appeared to Atticus to show that the Gracchi were heavily influenced by Cornelia's speech more than by her rearing. Later in history, Marcus Fabius Quintilian (ca. 35- ca. 100) would reassert Atticus's view of Cornelia's letters when he said "we have heard that their mother Cornelia had contributed greatly to the eloquence of the Gracchi, a woman whose extremely learned speech also has been handed down to future generations in her letters" (Inst. Orat. 1.1.6).4While Cicero's reference to Cornelia's letters make it clear that elite Romans of the time period were familiar with Cornelia's writings, today's historians are divided about whether today's surviving fragments are authentically Cornelia's words. Instead, the fragments are likely to have been propaganda circulated by the elite optimate faction of Roman politics, who were opposed to the populist reforms of Cornelia's sons. The letters appear to present Cornelia (a woman with considerable cultural cachet) as opposed to her son's reforms, and Gaius as a rash radical detached from either the well-being of the Roman Republic or the wishes of his respected mother—meaning that the surviving fragments could either be outright contemporary forgeries or significantly altered versions of what Cornelia actually wrote.

The Cornelia statue
After her death, a marble statue of Cornelia was erected, but only the base has survived; it is "the first likeness of a secular Roman woman set up by her contemporaries in a public space". Her statue endured during the revolutionary reign of Sulla, and she became a model for future Roman women culminating with the portrait said to be of Helena, Emperor Constantine's mother, four hundred years later. Later, anti-populist conservatives filed away the reference to her sons and replaced it with a reference to her as the daughter of Africanus rather than the mother of the Grachii.

Changing legacy over time
The historical Cornelia remains somewhat elusive. The figure portrayed in Roman literature likely represents more what she signified to Roman writers than an objective account. This significance changed over time as Roman society evolved, in particular the role of women. The problems in interpreting the literature are compounded by the fact only one work allegedly attributed to Cornelia herself survives, and classicists have questioned its authenticity since the nineteenth century. The Cornelia Fragments, detailed above, purport to constitute what remains of a letter written in 124 BC to her son, Gaius, and were preserved later in the manuscripts of Cornelius Nepos, who wrote on the Gracchi. In the letter, Cornelia expresses strong opposition to Gaius’ intentions to stand for the tribunate. She also urges him not to continue the revolutionary policies of his older brother Tiberius Gracchus, which led ultimately to his death. The fragments were likely included in Nepos’ Life of Gaius Gracchus, now lost.Controversy over the Fragments’ authenticity has focused on the letter’s style and content.  While a consensus seems to agree that the fragments do resemble the writing style and language of an educated Roman aristocrat of the late second century BC, several observe Cornelia’s rebuking of Gaius’ policies in the letter seems to conflict what is understood about her positions preserved in other sources. The vehemence with which she addresses Gaius seems to conflict, to some scholars, with what is believed regarding her maternal devotion. Because of these doubts, some scholars hypothesize the Fragments constitute either a later forgery created by someone wishing to separate Cornelia's political ideologies from those of her sons, while others suggest they are a much later fabrication, representing a "rhetorical exercise" wherein the writer attempted to recreate what Cornelia might have said, and the letter was inadvertently included as legitimate source material in Aemilius Probus’ edition of Nepos’ works in the 5th century AD. These theories themselves prove problematic, as the letter constitutes only one data point, and are therefore insufficient in reconstructing broad conclusions about Cornelia's political ideals or making inferences about nebulous ideas of "maternal devotion." As has also been pointed out, if they do in fact represent the work of a forger, he was an expert in the grammar, language, and writing style of the late 2nd  century Roman elite. A majority seems to believe that the Fragments are authentic and represent a private letter written by a highly educated woman, who never intended her stern rebuke to be read by anyone but her son.
With the Fragments being the only primary source material produced by Cornelia that survive, the reconstruction of the historical Cornelia relies mainly on how later Roman writers saw her. This is problematic because Roman depictions of Cornelia clearly change over time. The earliest image of Cornelia, painted largely by Plutarch's views, is of an aristocratic woman, spending much of her time living extravagantly in her family's villa, who because of her family's wealth, opportunities, and interest in education (particularly Greek), receives the best-possible education in Latin and Greek rhetoric.  She is somewhat controversial, both for her sons’ political policies and for having developed (and frequently making use of) such strong rhetorical abilities, despite being a woman. These early accounts emphasize her education and abilities but place comparatively much less emphasis on her maternal role.
Over subsequent centuries Cornelia evolved in the eyes of Roman writers, and her memory was adapted to fit their agendas. Her educational achievement and abilities were de-emphasized in favor of her example of "idealized maternity."   Her education was incorporated into her role as mother: education in order to pass it on to her sons. She was excised from the political controversy that surrounded her family and transformed into a heroic figure. As historian Emily Hemelrijk concludes, "the Cornelia we know is to a high degree a creation of later times."

Modern representations
An anecdote related by Valerius Maximus in his Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX (IV, 4, incipit) demonstrates Cornelia's devotion to and admiration for her sons. When women friends questioned Cornelia about her mode of dress and personal adornment, which was far more simple and understated than was usual for a wealthy Roman woman of her rank and station, Cornelia indicated her two sons and said, haec ornamenta mea [sunt], i.e., "These are my jewels."She is memorialized as Cornelia Gracchi, her name gilded on the Heritage Floor, of Judy Chicago's iconic feminist artwork, The Dinner Party (1974–1979).

See also
Women in Rome
Scipio-Paullus-Gracchus family tree

Notes
Passage 8:
Vera Miletić
Vera Miletić (Serbian Cyrillic: Вера Милетић; 8 March 1920 – 7 September 1944) was a Serbian student and soldier. She was notable for being the mother of Mira Marković, posthumously making her the mother-in-law of Serbian president Slobodan Milošević.

Personal life
Her cousin was Davorjanka Paunović who was the personal secretary of Communist Party of Yugoslavia leader Josip Broz Tito.
Passage 9:
Eldon Howard
Eldon Howard was a British screenwriter. She was the mother-in-law of Edward J. Danziger and wrote a number of the screenplays for films by his company Danziger Productions.

Selected filmography
A Woman of Mystery (1958)
Three Crooked Men (1958)
Moment of Indiscretion (1958) (with Brian Clemens)
Innocent Meeting (1959)
An Honourable Murder (1960)
The Spider's Web (1960)
The Tell-Tale Heart (1960)
Highway to Battle (1961)
Three Spare Wives (1962)
Passage 10:
Priscilla Pointer
Priscilla Marie Pointer (born May 18, 1924) is an American retired actress. She began her career in the theater in the late 1940s, including productions on Broadway. Later, Pointer moved to Hollywood and making appearances on television in the early 1950s.
She didn't however become a regular screen actress until the 1970s.
She is the mother of actress and singer Amy Irving, (whom she often appeared alongside as her mother or mother-in-law) therefore making her the former mother-in-law of filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Bruno Barreto and the mother-in-law of documentary filmmaker Kenneth Bowser, Jr.

Personal life
Pointer was born on May 18, 1924, in New York City. Her mother Augusta Leonora (née Davis) was an artist and an illustrator, and her father Kenneth Keith Pointer was an artist. One of her maternal great-grandfathers, Jacob Barrett Cohen, was from a Jewish family that had lived in the United States since the 1700s.

Marriages and family
Pointer was previously married to film and stage director Jules Irving, former artistic director of Lincoln Center, from 1947 until his death in 1979; they are the parents of Katie Irving, director David Irving, and actress Amy Irving. In 1980, she married actor/director/producer Robert Symonds, who had been Jules Irving's producing partner at Lincoln Center. She appeared several times in stage productions with Symonds, and they remained married until the latter's death in 2007. Her granddaughter is artist and photographer Austin Irving

Career
Early career
Pointer has been a performer since thee late 1940s starting her career in theatre and appearing on Broadway, and she featured in the TV series China Smith  (The New Adventures of China Smith) in 1954. After a long hiatus, she seemed to have caught the acting bug again, in the early 1970s and has been a regular performer ever since.
Pointer' first major starring role was on the TV soap opera Where the Heart Is as Adrienne Harris Rainey from 1972 and 1973

Films
Pointer has appeared in many films, including Carrie (1976), in which she played the onscreen mother of Amy Irving's character; The Onion Field (1979); Mommie Dearest (1981); Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983); A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987); David Lynch's Blue Velvet; and Coyote Moon (1999). In addition to Carrie, she has played the onscreen mother to Amy Irving in Honeysuckle Rose (1980) and Carried Away (1996). They were both in the films The Competition in 1980 and Micki & Maude in 1984.
Pointer appeared in three films that her son David Irving directed: Rumpelstiltskin (a 1987 musical version, which starred her daughter), Good-bye, Cruel World, and C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D.

Television
She has made many guest appearances on television, including Adam-12, L.A. Law, The A-Team, Judging Amy, The Rockford Files, and Cold Case.
From 1981 to 1983, Pointer had a recurring role on the soap opera Dallas as Rebecca Barnes Wentworth, the mother of Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), Pamela Barnes Ewing (Victoria Principal), and Katherine Wentworth (Morgan Brittany).

Filmography
Film
Partial Television Credits


Passage 1:
Albertine, baroness Staël von Holstein
Hedvig Gustava Albertina, Baroness de Staël-Holstein or simply Albertine (1797–1838), was the daughter of Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein and Madame de Staël, the granddaughter of Jacques Necker and Suzanne Curchod, wife to Victor de Broglie (1785–1870), and mother to Albert, a French monarchist politician, and Louise, a novelist and biographer. Her biological father may have been the author Benjamin Constant.

Life
Albertina, still very much part of the de Staël circle, shared her grandfather's anglomania, and introduced her husband to the "erudite society that centred around that family." Victor de Broglie Souvenirs recall their married life and the political storms that surrounded it.
Her letters were collected and edited by her son Albert and published in French and in English by Robert Baird as Transplanted flowers, or memoirs of Mrs. Rumpff, daughter of John Jacob Astor, Esq. and the Duchess de Broglie, daughter of Madame de Stael (1846).
Passage 2:
George Bogislaus Staël von Holstein
George Bogislaus Staël von Holstein (born 6 December 1685 in Narva; died 17 December 1763 in Malmö) was a Swedish baron and field marshal. He was the Governor of Malmöhus County from 1754 to 1763.

Family
George Bosiglaus Staël von Holstein was born on 6 December 1685, the son of Lt. Col. Johan Staël von Holstein and Julia Helena von der Pahlen. He was a member of the Staël von Holstein noble house which had then only recently joined the Swedish nobility.
During his captivity in Russia he married the Countess Ingeborg Christina Horn af Rantzien in 1710, a daughter of the Field Marshal Henning Rudolf Horn von Rantzien, who had been taken captive with his daughters by the Russians during the Great Northern War.
In 1722 Staël von Holstein planned a marriage with Sofia Elisabeth Ridderschantz. However, the marriage was broken off because his wife Ingeborg from Russia, where she had been held captive to that point, returned. In 1731 Staël von Holstein was raised to the rank of baron.In 1761 his first wife died, and Staël married Sofia Elisabeth Ridderschantz. Anna Helena Juliana, the daughter of George Bogislaus Staël von Holstein, died at the age of five. With her this branch of the Staël von Holstein noble family died out.

Military career
Staël von Holstein began his military career on 20 February 1700 as a volunteer in the Swedish household guard. He was promoted to Unteroffizier (roughly equivalent to corporal) in the artillery. Staël von Holstein became a cornet in the Dragoon regiment of the province Ingria which was under the command of Otto Vellingk. He participated in the campaign in Livonia against the Russian and Saxon armies. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1702 and a year later to Captain in the infantry regiment of Adam de la Gardie. This regiment was used in 1704 to free the besieged city of Narva from Russian troops. In April he was appointed commander of the grenadier company of this regiment.
The Swedish attack failed and Staël von Holstein was captured. He was held captive in prison camps in Siberia and later in the region of Moscow. Staël von Holstein succeeded in being exchanged for a Russian officer in 1711. His wife, her sisters and his father-in-law were not allowed to leave Russia, however. After his return Staël von Holstein was under the direct command of the Swedish King Charles XII, who was in exile in Bender and was dispatched by him to the Skaraborg regiment.
In 1713 Staël von Holstein was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and in 1715 he invaded Schonen with the Skaraborg regiment. Two years later he was appointed colonel. In 1718 he participated with his regiment in the campaign against Norway and took part in the Siege of Frederiksten.
In 1719 the Skaraborg regiment was garrisoned in Göteborg. The attack of the Danish captain Peter Wessel Tordenskiold on the fortress of Nya Elfsborg was repulsed by his commander Johan Abraham Lillie with all his forces. The artillery division of the Skaraborg regiment began a counter-attack on the Danish navy on 24 July. They were so taken by surprise by artillery fire from land that the fleet withdrew and repulsed the attack.In 1720 Staël parted from the Swedish army and served in the following years under Duke Karl Friedrich von Holstein. He was a major general and commander in his bodyguard.
In 1733 Staël von Holstein was appointed colonel and commandant of Kalmar Castle. A year later he was governor of Kalmar.
Staël was appointed major-general in 1734. In 1742 he was the leader of the political group the Caps.In 1743 Staël von Holstein was promoted to lieutenant general. He was also a Knight in the Royal Order of the Seraphim. In 1754 he was appointed governor of Malmöhus län and commandant of Malmö. He remained in this position until his death.

Civilian life
In 1737 Staël built a textile factory in Kalmar. In 1742 he founded the glasswork company Kosta Glasbruk together with the governor of Kronobergs län, Anders Koskull Kosta. Later Staël bought in the province of Halland a large property as a family seat. This was situated in the neighborhood of Vapnö and is still in the property of his family.
Passage 3:
Mathilda Staël von Holstein
Christina Mathilda Staël von Holstein (1876–1953) was a Swedish lawyer. She was the second woman to become a lawyer in Sweden, the first being Eva Andén. She was known as a feminist throughout her lifetime.

Biography
She was born in Kristianstad as the daughter of the nobleman and Colonel Axel Staël von Holstein and Cecilia Nordenfeldt and grew up in Värmland. She was orphaned early and left with responsibility for her eleven siblings, and never married.
She was a correspondent at a law firm, then an assistant and an accountant at the Stockholm City Health Board. She became a Candidate of Law in Stockholm in 1918. She was also a member of the Fredrika Bremer Association and chairman of the Stockholm Women's Association. From 1919 to 1923 she was a partner in Eva Andén's law firm. As a lawyer, she primarily worked on family law and property issues.One of the biggest problems for women to obtain government office during this time was that the law defined the applicant for such jobs as a "Swedish man". The Ministry of Justice formed a committee in 1919 to investigate and remove this barrier from the law through a change of constitution. The chairman of the committee was Emilia Broomé, the first woman to chair a government committee. Staël von Holstein was a committee member. The committee's work resulted in the Competence Law of 1923.
Staël von Holstein was awarded the Illis quorum by the King of Sweden in 1946.She died in Stockholm.

See also
Anna Pettersson, Swedish lawyer

Sources
Further reading
Mathilda Staël von Holstein at Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon
Passage 4:
Boris Bogoslovsky
Boris Basil Bogoslovsky (29 April 1890, in Ryazan – 2 December 1966, in Charleston, Illinois) was a Russian-American teacher and United Nations official.
Bogoslovosky emigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He married a Swedish teacher, Christina Staël von Holstein, and the pair taught at the Cherry Lawn School, a progressive boarding school in Darien, Connecticut. In 1933 they became co-directors of the school. Bogoslovosky taught science there until 1945, when he joined the United Nations as a translator in the UN's Russian Language Section. He was also an observer for the US government at the Nuremberg Trials.

Works
The technique of controversy: principles of dynamic logic, 1928. In the series The International Library of Psychology, Philosophy and Scientific Method.
The ideal school, 1936.
Passage 5:
Elin Lauritzen
Elin Maria Lauritzen (born 11 July 1916 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; died 17 September 2006) was for many years one of Sweden's foremost family law attorneys.She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Pension Board in 1944 as well as Deputy Attorney at the lawyers Mathilda Staël von Holstein, Valborg Lundgren and Eva Andén 1945–1953. She became a member of the Swedish Bar Association in 1949.
Passage 6:
Monte Carlo (composer)
Hans von Holstein, better known as Monte Carlo (14 July 1883 — 9 June 1967), was a Danish-born American Broadway composer and author.

Life
Von Holstein was born in Skamlingsbanken, Gravenstein, Denmark, on 14 July 1883.He came to the U.S. in 1906 to avoid studying medicine.  He changed his name to Hans Carlo, and soon began using Monte Carlo as his name. He became a naturalized US citizen in 1914. He received pre-medical training in Chicago, with songwriting as chief avocation. He started writing music with Alma Sanders, whom he met at Jerome H. Remick's music publishing firm.  She eventually became his wife. They collaborated on a number of shows and a large number of songs.  He joined the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 1923.In 1930, he was living with his wife at 10 Williams Avenue in Mount Vernon, New York. In 1942, he was living at 145 West 55th Street, New York.After the death of his wife in 1956, he moved to Houston, Texas. There he became vice-president of Carsen Music Publishing, founded by his step-son, Edward C. Benjamin Sr. He died in Houston on June 9, 1967.

Songs with music or lyrics by Monte Carlo
"Little Town in the old County Down"
"Dinny Danny; The Irish Yacki Hula"
"That Tumble-Down Shack in Athlone"
"Every Tear Is a Smile in an Irishman's Heart"
"By the waters of Killarney"
"Just a bit of Irish lace"
"Two Blue Eyes, One Little Green Isle"
"My Home in the County Mayo"
"The Hills of Connemara"
"The Old Wooden Bridge in Athlone"Several songs became very popular after being recorded by John McCormack in the early 1920s.

Shows
The Voice of McConnell by George M. Cohan, (1918; supplied songs)
Tangerine (1921)
Elsie (1923)
The Chiffon Girl (1924)
Bye Bye Barbara (1924)
Princess April (1924)
Oh! Oh! Nurse (1925)
Houseboat on the Styx (1928; supplied songs)
Mystery Moon (1930)
Louisiana Lady (1947)
Passage 7:
Auguste-Théodore-Paul de Broglie
Abbé Auguste-Théodore-Paul de Broglie (June 18, 1834 – May 11, 1895) was professor of apologetics at the Institut Catholique in Paris, and writer on apologetic subjects.
He was the son of Achille-Victor, Duc de Broglie, and his wife, Albertine, baroness Staël von Holstein, a Protestant and the daughter of Madame de Staël. After the death of his mother, who died young, he was brought up by the Baroness Auguste de Staël, née Vernet. This aunt, although also a Protestant, exerted herself "to make a large-minded Christian of him in the Church to which she did not belong" (Monseigneur d'Hulst in Le Correspondant, 25 May 1895).
Broglie studied at the École Polytechnique, leaving in 1855. Still young, he entered the navy; he was appointed ensign in 1857 and soon after lieutenant. After a voyage to New Caledonia in which he came in contact with active missions, he felt himself called to the religious life. He entered the Seminary of Saint Sulpice in Paris in 1867. After completing his studies there he was ordained priest on 18 October 1870. He was named professor of apologetics at the Institut Catholique in 1879. His teaching, which included philosophical, theological, biblical and historical themes, were intended to defend the Catholic faith from perceived attacks from Positivism and Rationalism. He maintained the harmony and autonomy of the two spheres of knowledge, religion and reason.
In his numerous publications the Abbé de Broglie was always a faithful defender of Catholic dogma. At the time of his death, which resulted from the violence of an insane person he had taken under his protection, he was preparing a book on the agreement of reason and faith.
His most important work is Problèmes et conclusions de l'histoire des religions (Paris, 1886). Of his other writings, some of which were pamphlets or articles in reviews, the following may be mentioned:

Le positivisme et la science expérimentale (2 vol., París 1880-81)
Cours d’apologétique chrétienne (1883)
La Morale évolutionniste (1885)
La Morale sans Dieu (1886)
La Réaction contre le positivisme (1894)
"Religion de Zoroastre et religion védique"
"Le bouddhisme"
"Religions neo-brahmaniques de l'Inde"
"L'islamisme"; "La vraie définition de la religion"
"La transcendence du christianisme"
"L'histoire religieuse d'Israël"
"Les prophètes et les prophéties, d'après les travaux de Kuenen"
"L'idée de Dieu dans l'Ancien et le Nouveau Testament"
"Le présent et l'avenir du catholicisme en France"Two posthumous publications, Religion et critique (1896) and Questions bibliques (1897)  were edited by the Abbé Piat.
Passage 8:
Alexander von Staël-Holstein
Alexander Wilhelm Freiherr Staël von Holstein (Chinese: 鋼和泰, January 1, 1877, in Testama manor, Livonia, Russian Empire – March 16, 1937, in [[Beiping]], China); was a Baltic German aristocrat, Russian and Estonian orientalist, sinologist, and Sanskritologist specializing in Buddhist texts.

Life
Related to Germaine de Staël's husband, the future baron was born in the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire (present-day Estonia),in an aristocratic family (with widespread relations in other German Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire, Sweden and Northern Germany) on New Year's Day. He was educated at home during his childhood. When he reached 15, he was sent to a Gymnasium in the town of Pernau (now Pärnu). He pursued his higher education at the Dorpat University (Tartu), where some of his families had studied, majoring in comparative philology. After his graduation, he left for Germany, studying oriental languages in the Berlin University.
Prussian public records of 1898 show that the young Baron was involved in a duel in Berlin, which he apparently survived. In his second year in Berlin, as the only male heir he inherited the family estate in Testama (now Tõstamaa) and the baronage. In 1900, he gained his doctorate with his dissertation Der Karmapradīpa, II. Prapāthaka from the University of Halle-Wittenberg. The first Prapāṭhaka of the Karmapradīpa had been translated in 1889 by  Friedrich Schrader, also as a dissertation in Halle. The supervisor of both dissertations was Professor Richard Pischel, at that time the world's leading expert on Prakrit, the ancient form of Sanskrit, and long-time head of the "Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft", the German Orientalist Society.
During the following years, Baron de Stael traveled widely and studied with the best oriental scholars in Germany, England and India.
He started his academic career in 1909 when he was appointed assistant professor of Sanskrit in the University of St. Petersburg and the member of the Russian Committee for the Exploration of Central and Eastern Asia. In 1912, he visited the US and lived in Harvard for some time to study Sanskrit.
He was in the Republic of China when the October Revolution broke out. The government of the new Estonian Republic, established in 1918 after the Treaty of Versailles, left him only a small part of his inherited estate. He then accepted an Estonian citizenship but remained in Beijing. With the recommendation of his friend Charles Eliot, the then principal of the University of Hong Kong, he was invited by Hu Shih to teach Sanskrit, Tibetan, and the History of Indian Religion at Peking University as lecturer from 1918 to 1921 and as professor from 1922 to 1929. He helped set up the Sino-Indian Institute in Beijing in 1927. In 1928 he was a visiting scholar at Harvard University, helping the Harvard-Yenching Institute to collect books. In 1932, he was selected an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of History and Philology (歷史語言研究所), Academia Sinica.
Besides his works on Indian and Tibetan religions, he also contributed to the field of historical Chinese phonology. His influential "The Phonetic Transcription of Sanskrit Works and Ancient Chinese Pronunciation" was translated by Hu Shih into Chinese and was published in Guoxue Jikan (Chinese: 國學季刊) in 1923.

Selected works
The Kāçyapaparivarta: a Mahāyānasūtra of the Ratnakūṭa class, edited in the original Sanskrit, in Tibetan and in Chinese, Shanghai: Shangwu Yinshuguan, 1926
On a Tibetan text translated into Sanskrit under Ch'ien Lung (XIII cent.) and into Chinese under Tao Kuang (XIX cent.), Bulletin of the National Library of Peiping, 1932
On two Tibetan pictures representing some of the spiritual ancestors of the Dalai Lama and of the Panchen Lama, Bulletin of the National Library of Peiping, 1932
A commentary to the Kāçcyapaparivarta, edited in Tibetan and in Chinese, Peking: published jointly by the National Library and the National Tsinghau University, 1933
On a Peking edition of the Tibetan kanjur which seems to be unknown in the West, Peking: Lazarist Press, 1934
On two recent reconstructions of a Sanskrit hymn transliterated with Chinese characters in the X century A.D, Peking: Lazarist Press, 1934
Two Lamaistic pantheons, edited with introduction and indexes by Walter Eugene Clark from materials collected by the late Baron A. von Staël-Holstein, Harvard-Yenching Institute monograph series 3 and 4, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1937

See also
List of Baltic German scientists

Notes
Passage 9:
Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein
Baron Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein, (25 October 1749, Loddby, Sweden – 9 May 1802, Poligny, France) was a Swedish diplomat, soldier and courtier best known for being Sweden's Ambassador to France during the end of the Ancien Regime and the early years of the French Revolution, as well as being the husband of Madame de Staël. Erik Magnus assisted Gustav III during the Swedish Revolution of 1772 and was later named Chamberlain to Queen Sophia Magdalena. In 1783, he was appointed chargé d'affaires to the Court of France, and in 1785 he was named Ambassador. On 21 January 1786, he married the daughter of the French Minister of Finance, Jacques Necker, mademoiselle Anne Louise Germaine Necker, who was to achieve fame as "Madame de Staël".

Early life
Erik Magnus was born on 25 October 1749 as the seventh child of Mathias Gustav Staël von Holstein, the scion of an ancient noble family originally from the Rhineland. As a young officer, Staël participated in the 1772 coup that brought Gustav III to power. For his services, he was made a knight of the Order of the Sword and chamberlain to the Queen. He was later assigned to the Swedish embassy to France, serving under the ambassador, Gustaf Philip Creutz. Staël's charming manners, good looks and affable disposition soon impressed Creutz and many members of the French court, including Queen Marie Antoinette herself.

Life and marriage
After five years of negotiation between Staël, the King of Sweden, Marie Antoinette, and Jacques Necker, Staël agreed to marry Germaine. He obtained a dowry of 650,000 livres, was made permanent Swedish ambassador to the Court of Louis XVI, and was invested with the Order of the Polar Star.The marriage solved Staël’s financial problems (he was a prolific gambler) but was largely loveless, although not acrimonious. Baron and Madame de Staël pursued other love interests, and were often at odds over politics, but remained friendly to each other. Staël remained ambassador to France through the early convulsions of the French Revolution. Staël had a stormy relationship with Gustav III and he often found himself caught between the interests of his politically active and liberal wife, the ever-changing government of Republican France, and the counter-revolutionary position of the King of Sweden. Staël was dismissed as ambassador to France in 1795 by the young Gustav IV Adolf. For the remainder of his life, Staël ran up enormous debts due to his gambling and relied financially on the Neckers.In early 1802, Staël fell ill. His wife invited him back to the Necker family retreat at Coppet in the hopes that he would recover. In the late spring of 1802, Staël suffered a stroke on his way to Switzerland. Madame de Staël faithfully looked after him until he died, on the night of 8 May 1802. Though they were never really close, his death greatly affected his wife and she had him buried at Coppet.Staël was described by his wife and his contemporaries as a handsome man of polished manners, possessed of great wit and charm, kind-hearted, generous, and cultured with a great knowledge of history, fine wines and politics. He was a consummate and talented diplomat, who so greatly impressed the future-First Lady of the United States, Abigail Adams, who accompanied her husband John Adams, then US minister plenipotentiary to France, that she described him in letters home as: "The Baron de Staël, the Swedish ambassador, comes nearest to that character, in his manners and personal appearance, of any gentleman I ever saw. The first time I saw him I was prejudiced in his favor, for his countenance commands your good opinion; it is animated, intelligent, sensible, affable and, without being perfectly beautiful, is perfectly agreeable; add to this a fine figure and who can fail in being charmed with the Baron de Staël?" However, he could also be weak-willed and lacking in self-control.
Staël successfully negotiated the cession of Saint Barthélemy to Sweden and supported the proposal of William Bolts for a Swedish colony in the eastern Indian Ocean. He skillfully navigated the troubled waters of the first years of the French Revolution. In his time, he was acknowledged as a diplomat of great talent, but ultimately he was destined to be overshadowed by the brilliance of his wife.

Children
Gustava Sofia Magdalena, born 1787, died in infancy.
Gustava Hedvig, born 1789, died in infancy.
Ludvig August, born on 1 September 1790. Died in France in 1827, therefore ending this line of the family. Married 1827 to Adèle Vernet. He was said to have been the biological son of the comte de Narbonne (1755-1813), himself the illegitimate son of King Louis XV.
Mattias Albert, born on 2 October 1792. Ensign in the Cavalry. Killed in a duel on 12 July 1813 at Buchtenberg, in Mecklenburg.
Hedvig Gustava Albertina, born 8 June 1797, died in Paris on 28 September 1838. Married on 20 February 1816 in Pisa to the French Foreign Minister, Victor de Broglie. Her biological father may have been Benjamin Constant.
Passage 10:
Johan Staël von Holstein
Lars Johan Magnus Staël von Holstein (born Johan Bjers, 5 May 1963) is a Swedish entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author who co-founded dot-com companies such as Icon Medialab and LetsBuyIt during the early dot-com boom in Sweden. He has been the CEO of the multi-level marketing company Crowd1, which has been identified as an illegal pyramid scheme in a number of countries. As of December 2020 he claims to have left Crowd1.

Early life
Staël von Holstein was born in Halmstad. He lived in Spain between the ages of 2 and 8, after which his family moved back to Sweden. After his military service he worked as a travel guide in the French and Austrian alps, and in Spain. At the age of 24 he was in a car accident and had to use a wheelchair for three months.He returned to Sweden, and studied information technology at Lund University for a time. In 1989, he began his studies at Stockholm Business School, Stockholm University, majoring in marketing management. In an interview in 2012, he claimed that he had bribed his way into Stockholm Business School.He is married and has two children. He lives in Marbella and Madrid, Spain, and has previously lived in Holland, Thailand, Singapore, and Switzerland.

Career
Staël von Holstein began his career at the media and investment company Kinnevik, working for Jan Stenbeck for several years. He was the marketing director of Kinnevik's TV channel Z-TV, and then became the CEO of the start-up teletext company InTV (Interactive television). Staël von Holstein was vice president of Inlux, in Luxemburg, and then went on to become responsible for Banque Invik's sales and credit card operations.At the end of 1995, Staël von Holstein left Kinnevik to found the web design company Icon Medialab together with Jesper Jos Olsson, Erik Wickström, and Magnus Lindahl. In 1998 he was included on a list of 12 "Global Leaders of Tomorrow" published by Chief Executive magazine.He moved back to Stockholm in 2004 to start the business incubator IQube.He was an independent, right-wing columnist for the Stockholm edition of the newspaper Metro until 2008.

Entrepreneurship
Icon Media Lab
At the end of 1995, Staël von Holstein left the Kinnevik Group to found Icon Medialab together with Jesper Jos Olsson, Erik Wickström, and Magnus Lindahl.[6].
The company went public in 1999 and continued rapid expansion with a US$70 million investment into the Asian market in 2000. At its peak the company had over 3,000 employees in 32 offices in cities around the globe. In 2001 its shares plunged more than 98% from their early 2000 peak and it axed around 500 jobs. In December 2001 shares of the debt-ridden company were suspended from the Stockholm stock exchange. The company was merged with rival Dutch web company Lost Boys in a reverse takeover to form a new Dutch-based company under CEO Rens Buchwaldt, and re-capitalized through a £12.4 million rights issue.

LetsBuyIt.com
In 1998 Staël von Holstein founded LetsBuyIt, an online price comparison platform that enabled its users to share, compare, and buy various products.  LetsBuyIt floated on Germany's Neuer Markt in July 2000, raising about US$60 million from a planned target of US$180 million in its initial public offering. It sought protection under the Dutch Bankruptcy Code (Faillissementswet) in December of the same year. After deferring bankruptcy through 2001, on 4 March 2002 it declared bankruptcy. Its staff had been reduced from 450 to 25.

IQube
In 2004, Staël von Holstein started IQube, which quickly grew into one of the largest private incubators in Europe with a portfolio of more than 100 companies, but by 2009 IQube was wound-up, with Staël von Holstein's entire scheme described as "a fraud".

MyCube
Staël von Holstein founded MyCube in 2008, a digital life management tool for exchanging, sharing and selling content. MyCube was the first decentralized social exchange that prioritized privacy, ownership, and user freedom to monetize on their own creativity in contrast to centralized networks as Facebook etc. MyCube raised over US$8 million in funds in May 2011, then in August 2012 filed for voluntary liquidation.

Crowd1
In 2019, Staël von Holstein was identified as the CEO of the multi-level marketing company Crowd1, on the company's official YouTube channel as well as in a message sent to the members of the marketing network at the end of 2019.In November 2019, Norway's gaming and foundation authority, Lotteri- og stiftelsestilsynet, determined that Crowd1 operates with a pyramid structure to generate revenue. In January 2020, in Burundi's largest city Bujumbura, Crowd1 was raided and over 300 people arrested, 17 of whom were placed in custody for promoting Crowd1, described as a Ponzi scheme.In Paraguay on 6 February 2020 the Comisión Nacional de Valores (CNV) issued a securities fraud warning against Crowd1, advising against investment. CNV identifies Crowd1 as an unregistered securities offering. Promoters of Crowd1 in Paraguay face up to three years imprisonment or a fine. On 21 February 2020 the Bank of Namibia declared Crowd1 a pyramid scheme and warned the promoters to stop their activities immediately. The bank stated  "Crowd1 does not sell tangible products or render any service of essential value, but the primary source of income for Crowd1 is the sale of membership packages to new members".On 12 May 2020 the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) directed Crowd1 Asia Pacific to immediately stop its “fraudulent” investing-taking activities. On 1 June 2020 the Gabon Ministry of the Economy and Finance warned against the activities of Crowd1, stating that "these services are akin to pyramid scam systems in network marketing in which the profit does not come from the sales activity but from the recruitment of new members. Thus, only the designers of said systems derive the benefits to the detriment of members." On 5 June 2020 the New Zealand Financial Markets Authority added Crowd1 and Impact Crowd Technology to its warning list due to concerns they may be involved in or operating a scam.In June 2020 Vietnam’s Competition and Consumer Protection Department issued a warning against the activities of Crowd1, stating that "these operations were likely to be pyramid schemes and were prohibited according to the established regulations".
In July 2020 the government of Côte d’Ivoire banned Crowd1 from operation in Côte d'Ivoire, determining its sales system to be a Ponzi scheme. On 3 December 2020 Národná banka Slovenska, the central bank of the Slovak Republic, issued a securities fraud warning on the activities of Crowd1 Network Ltd and Impact Crowd Technology S.L.In November 2020, Staël von Holstein claimed not to be the CEO of Crowd1 but of the parent company Impact Crowd Technology, as well as of Tecnología de Impacto Multiple SL which was "the sole provider of Crowd1 products".  He announced in December 2020 that he was leaving his CEO position, and ending all connections with Crowd1, for health reasons.


Passage 1:
Satellite tournament
A satellite tournament is either a minor tournament or event on a competitive sporting tour or one of a group of such tournaments that form a series played in the same country or region.

Poker
A satellite tournament in poker is a qualifying event. Winners of these satellites usually win the buy-in fee to a larger, more prestigious tournament like the World Series of Poker Main Event. Although there are some land-based satellite tournaments (usually for very high-stakes tournaments), most of them are online-based. Some sites, like PokerStars, maintain several tiers of satellites. A player can thus start out at one tier (not necessarily the lowest one) and play his way to a higher tier. The entry fee for each tier is always higher than the fee for the tier below it, with the first tier being the cheapest.

Tennis
In professional tennis, satellite circuits were four-week tournaments (five before 1987), typically organised by a country's national tennis association and overseen by the International Tennis Federation. They were played by players who were ranked outside the top few hundred by the Association of Tennis Professionals, with openings for unranked players in the qualifying draw. Total prize money ranged from $25,000 to $75,000 per circuit.  ATP points were awarded on the basis of a player's ranking within the circuit and from 1987 onwards on the basis of the conversion of a player's circuit points into ATP points. Players successful at this level of pro tennis would move on to play ATP Challenger Series or even top-flight ATP Tour events. The men's satellite tournaments were discontinued following the 2006 season as the circuit moved exclusively to one-week Futures tournaments.

Pinball
A satellite tournament in pinball is modeled after those in poker. It is a smaller tournament that leads up to a major pinball championship, where participants have the opportunity to win their entry into the larger tournament. Applying the satellite tournament concept to pinball was first done by Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show in 2013 to promote both the show and the tournaments at the show. Since then, some other major tournaments have begun using the concept.
Passage 2:
Tunstall, Virginia
Tunstall is an unincorporated community in New Kent County, Virginia, United States.Foster's Castle and Hampstead, both located in Tunstall, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Passage 3:
Telephone numbers in Ascension Island
Country Code: +247International Call Prefix: 00
Ascension Island does not share the same country code (+290) with the rest of St Helena.

Calling formats
To call in Ascension Island, the following format is used:
yxxxx      Calls inside Ascension Island
+247 yxxxx  Calls from outside Ascension Island

Ascension Island numbering plan
According to ITU Communication of 08.V.2015, Sure South Atlantic Limited, Jamestown, announced the following update to the numbering plan for Ascension.
The length of geographical numbers increased from four (4) to five (5) digits and prefixed with the number "6".
The 4XXXX range  reserved for mobile services.
The change to five-digit numbering to be implemented on 1 June 2015.

1: New 5-digit numbering
2: 6-digit numbering

See also
Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom
Telephone numbers in Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha
Passage 4:
Lubnowy
Lubnowy is part of the name of two villages, both located in Gmina Susz, within Iława County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland:

Lubnowy Małe
Lubnowy Wielkie

See also
Liebenau
Passage 5:
Breville
Breville is an Australian brand of small home appliances, founded in Sydney in 1932. It is best known for its home appliances, specifically blenders, coffee machines, toasters, kettles, microwaves and toaster ovens. As of 2016, the brand also manufactured "Creatista" coffee machines for Nespresso, and distributed other Nespresso products in Australia, New Zealand and the USA and Canada, including the "Inissia", "Vertuo" and "Citiz" series of machines.

History
In 1932, Bill O'Brien and Harry Norville (born Charles Henry Norville) mixed their last names together and the Breville brand was created. The company started by making radios. During World War II, it made mine detectors. By 1953, the radio business had been taken over by A.W. Jackson Industries Pty. Ltd., which manufactured radiograms and, later, television sets under the Breville brand. After that, Breville turned its attention to manufacturing household appliances.
The O'Brien family continued developing the Breville business for three generations, with Bill's son, John, setting up the Breville Research and Development centre in the late 1960s, and his daughter, Barbara, running the marketing department throughout the 1990s. John O'Brien continued to lead many product development initiatives for the Breville brand until his death in December 2003. Breville's R&D team has taken out over 100 active patents and has been awarded more than 40 international design awards. In 1974, Breville released the toasted sandwich maker, which was a huge success, selling 400,000 units in its first year, and making the Breville brand a household name in Australia. Soon after this, the Breville toasted sandwich maker was launched in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, where it was met with similar success.

Ownership
In 2001, the Breville companies of Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong transferred ownership of the brand to Housewares International Limited. The acquisition of the Breville companies caused the group to shift its focus to the electrical business and cease its Australian homewares and cleaning businesses in March 2007. In 2008, Housewares International Limited officially changed its name to the Breville Group Limited. The Breville Group Limited also owns the Kambrook and Sage brands. It markets most of its product under the Sage brand in the UK and Europe, since the Breville brand is owned by the unrelated Jarden company in the UK.

Global presence
Breville trades in over 70 countries including China, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, and Israel. In 2002, the Breville brand was launched in Canada and the United States.
Passage 6:
Jawty
Jawty (German: Jauth) is part of the name of two villages, both located in Gmina Susz, within Iława County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland:

Lubnowy Małe
Lubnowy Wielkie
Passage 7:
Jakab Industries
Jakab Industries was an Australian coachbuilder in Tamworth, New South Wales.

History
Jakab Industries built its first bus body in July 1973, a Ford R226. It mainly made bodies for buses for the defence forces, but also built some for commercial operators, before withdrawing from the market in late 1995. It also built bodies for ambulances and postal vans. In the 1990s it also overhauled Mercedes-Benz and Scania buses for the State Transit Authority.
Following the collapse of Clifford Corporation in 1998, Volvo arranged for Jakab to take over the Ansair plant in Tamworth and complete the work of providing Orana-style bodies for 60 State Transit Authority Volvo B10BLE buses. The subsidiary company set up to do the work was named Phoenix Bus.Jakab Industries was placed in administration in 2002.
Passage 8:
Radzice
Radzice is part of the name of two villages, both located in Gmina Drzewica, within Opoczno County, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland:

Radzice Duże
Radzice Male
Passage 9:
Limestone Coast
The Limestone Coast is a name used since the early twenty-first century for a South Australian government region  located in the south east of South Australia which immediately adjoins the continental coastline and the Victorian border.  The name is also used for a tourist region and a wine zone both located in the same part of South Australia.

Extent
The Limestone Coast is a South Australian Government Region which consists of land within the following local government areas located in the south east of the state: the City of Mount Gambier and the District Councils of Grant, Kingston, Robe, Tatiara and Naracoorte Lucindale and the Wattle Range Council, and the extent of "coastal waters" up to three nautical miles seaward of the low water mark between the border with Victoria in the east and  the northern boundary of the Kingston District Council in the north-west.

Industry regions with the same name
Limestone Coast Tourism Region
The words 'Limestone Coast' also used in the name of a  tourism region which occupies a similar part of South Australia.  The tourism region consists of the following local government areas: the City of Mount Gambier, The Coorong District Council, the District Councils of Grant, Kingston, Robe, Tatiara and Naracoorte Lucindale, and the Wattle Range Council.

Limestone Coast Wine Zone
The words 'Limestone Coast' also used in the name of a wine zone which occupies a similar part of South Australia.  The wine zone is the land south of a line located at appropriately 36 degrees 50 minutes south, i.e. in line with Cape Willoughby at the east end of Kangaroo Island.  The zone includes the following wine-growing regions: Coonawarra, Mount Benson, Mount Gambier, Padthaway, Robe and Wrattonbully.

Location and description
From the Victoria border to the Younghusband Peninsula this area has been settled since colonisation by  mainly European settlers in the 1840s, displacing an indigenous population that had resided in the region for thousands of years. The region currently supports farming, viticulture, forestry and tourism. Towns include Bordertown, Keith, Millicent, Mount Gambier, Penola, and Naracoorte and the coastal resorts of Beachport, Kingston SE and Robe.
Much of the Limestone Coast is low-lying, and was inundated by sea as recently as 2 million years ago. It had previously also been flooded 15–20 million years ago.  The plains are lined by rows of low sandhills parallel to the coast, created at times when the coastline was at that level. Prior to European settlement, much of the land between the sandhills was swamp fed by streams and subject to inundation. A network of drains totalling 1450 km has been constructed to channel the water away through the sandhills to the ocean. Important areas of wetland remain including the lakes and lagoons such as the southern end of the Coorong and Bool Lagoon. Meanwhile, areas of upland in the Limestone Coast include the volcanic craters of Mount Gambier.
The Mediterranean climate of this coast is cool and moist with wet winters.

History
There are deep limestone deposits created from the coral and other sealife. The limestone in Victoria Fossil Cave and the other Naracoorte Caves contains are Australia's biggest source of fossils and a World Heritage Site.

Ecology
Flora
The natural vegetation was woodland of River Red gum and other eucalyptus trees.

Fauna
Although there are few purely endemic species the coast is rich in wildlife including possums, Cercartetus pygmy possums, Petaurus Gliding possums, and other marsupials many of which do not spread further west than here. Endemic species include reptiles such as the striped legless lizard (Delma impar) and invertebrates like an endemic cave cricket. The Naracoorte caves are occupied by the common bent-wing bat.
The lakes and lagoons are particularly important habitats for waterbirds such as black swan, grey teal, Pacific black duck, and especially the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot (Neophema chrysogaster) which winters here along with many other birds including the red-necked stint (Calidris ruficollis), sharp-tailed sandpiper (Calidris acuminata), and curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea).
Most of the original habitat has been cleared for agriculture and only fragments remain (particularly in areas of wetland) with Coorong National Park and Canunda National Park being the largest areas. Therefore, most indigenous wildlife has also disappeared or been severely reduced in number with introduced species of animals an ongoing threat to that which remains.

See also
Regions of South Australia
South Australian Forestry Corporation
Kanawinka Geopark

External links

Regional website - local weather, street maps, events etc* Official tourist website
SouthAustralia.com Limestone Coast - travel guides, accommodation, online booking
Limestone Coast - National Parks
Passage 10:
Alexander Mathieson & Sons
The firm of Alexander Mathieson & Sons was one of the leading makers of hand tools in Scotland. Its success went hand in hand with the growth of the shipbuilding industries on the Firth of Clyde in the nineteenth century and the emergence of Glasgow as the "second city of the Empire". It also reflected the firm's skill in responding to an unprecedented demand for quality tools by shipyards, cooperages and other industries, both locally and far and wide.

Early years
The year 1792 was deemed by the firm to be that of its foundation; it was in all likelihood the year in which John Manners had set up his plane-making workshop on Saracen('s) Lane off the Gallowgate in the heart of Glasgow, not far from the Saracen's Head Inn, where Dr. Johnson and James Boswell had stayed on their tour of Scotland in 1773.Alexander Mathieson (1797–1851) is recorded in 1822 as a plane-maker at 25 Gallowgate, but in the following year at 14 Saracen's Lane, presumably having taken over the premises of John Manners. The 1841 national census described Alexander Mathieson as a master plane-maker at 38 Saracen Lane with his son Thomas Adam working as a journeyman plane-maker.

Thomas Adam Mathieson
Gradually business grew and became more diversified, the Post-Office Glasgow Annual Directory recording that by 1847/8 Alexander Mathieson was a "plane, brace, bit, auger & edge-tool maker".

Edinburgh
In 1849 the firm of James & William Stewart at 65 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh was taken over and Thomas was put in charge of the business, trading under the name Thomas A. Mathieson & Co. as plane and edge-tool makers. Thomas's company acquired the Edinburgh edge-tool makers Charles & Hugh McPherson and took over their premises in Gilmore Street. In the Edinburgh directory of 1856/7 the business is recorded as being Alexander Mathieson & Son, plane and edge-tool makers at 48 Nicolson Street and at Paul's Work, Gilmore Street.

Growth of the Glasgow business
The 1851 census records that Alexander was working as a tool and plane-maker employing eight men. Later that year Alexander died and his son Thomas took over the business. Under the heading of edge-tool maker in the 1852/3 Post-Office Glasgow Annual Directory the firm is now listed as Alexander Mathieson & Son, with further lines as "turning-lathe and vice manufacturers" added. By the early 1850s the business had moved to 24 Saracen Lane. The directory for 1857/8 records that the firm had moved again only a few years later to East Campbell Street, also off the Gallowgate, and that through further diversification was also manufacturing coopers' and tinmen's tools. The ten-yearly censuses log the firm's growth: in 1861 Thomas was a tool manufacturer employing 95 men and 30 boys; in 1871 he had 200 men working for him; and in 1881 300 men. By 1899 the firm had been incorporated as Alexander Mathieson & Sons Ltd, notwithstanding the fact that only Alexander's son Thomas appears ever to have joined the firm.

Trade-mark
In September 1868 Thomas Mathieson put a notice in the Sheffield & Rotherham Independent and the Sheffield Daily Telegraph stating that his firm had used the trade-mark of a crescent and star "for some time" and that "using or imitating the Mark would be proceeded against for infringement". The firm had acquired its interest in the crescent-and-star mark from the heirs of Charles Pickslay, the Sheffield cutler who had registered it with the Cutlers' Company in 1833 and had died in 1852. The year 1868 seems also to be the one in which the name Saracen Tool Works was first adopted; not only does it figure at the foot of the notice in the Sheffield press, it also makes its first appearance in the firm's entry in the Post-Office Glasgow Annual Directory in the 1868/9 edition.

Public life
As Thomas Mathieson's business grew, so too did his involvement in local public life and philanthropy. One of the representatives of the third ward on the town council of Glasgow, he became a river bailie in 1868, a magistrate in 1870 and a preceptor of Hutcheson's Hospital in 1878. He had a passion for books and was an "ardent Ruskinian". He served on the committee handling the bequest for the setting up of the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. When he died at Coulter Maynes near Biggar in 1899, he left an estate worth £142,764. He is buried at the Glasgow Necropolis next to the cathedral.

Later years of the firm
Both Thomas's sons, James Harper and Thomas Ogilvie, were involved in the continuing life of the firm. James followed in his father's footsteps in becoming a local public figure. He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of the County of the City of Glasgow and was made a deacon of the Incorporation of the Hammermen of Glasgow in 1919. His brother Thomas Ogilvie was recorded as tool manufacturer and employer in the 1911 census. Thomas Ogilvie's son Thomas Alastair Sutherland Ogilvie "Taso" Mathieson born in 1908 took a rather different approach to engineering, however, by becoming a racing driver. In 1947 he wed the French film actress Mila Parély.

Awards at world's fairs
Great Exhibition, London, 1851. Prize medal for joiners' tools in the class of Cutlery & Edge Tools
Great London Exposition, 1862. Prize medal honoris causa
International Exhibition, Melbourne, 1880. Gold medal
International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art, Edinburgh, 1886. Prize medal

== Notes ==