The Tale of a Cloth: Fortresses Facing Germany during World War I

Today's (this week's? turned out to be this year's!) wondering stems from trying to figure out what the map to the right is. Unlike what one may expect on a quick glance, it is not a map of Europe, but mostly north central Europe: eastern Germany, western Russia, and northern Austria-Hungary. In addition, the big bold-faced names are not those (with some exceptions) of major European cities. So what is it?

It is part of of what had been a fairly sizable collection of World War I materials saved by my great aunt. So, although undated, I have always known that it as some World War I German thing. In deciding to unburden ourselves of more stuff, I needed to figure out finally what the map is all about, so this is where I wandered.

The facts: the map is made of some sort of line, and it measures 16 1/2" x 16 1/2" (42 cm square). In looking at closely, I see that there is both a key (for distance) at the top and (perhaps) a title: the word "Festungen". So first things first, is the Google translate which gives me "Forts"; in parallel, Wikipedia takes me to Fortification. 

This lists fortresses (Festungen) in existence in eastern Germany, western Russia, and northern Austria-Hungary, presumably at the beginning of the war. Undated, published by Verlag Sander & Gronau, Hamburg.

So now that I can see that each of the symbols denotes a fortress, my wandering takes me to each of them (roughly going from North to South) on the map. The big question, however, will still be why this map and who was it for!

My First Driving Lessons

Another clipping from a scrapbook kept by mother brings back much fonder memories--learning street signs and how to navigate. I cannot remember if there are photographs of us, but I believe there may be, but will have to add them later (if and when I find them). 

This is a story from the U.S. Armed Forces newspaper, The Stars and Stripes, from September 5, 1958. My first Googling was to see if these were available online, and it turns out that they are, but for a fee. However, without buying in, I was able to capture a slightly buggy OCR transcription, so I didn't have to type it all:

NIghtmares Revisited... or a Trip to Bad Canstatt

Over a year from my last wandering! Today's was started by finding this clipping in a scrapbook of my mother's that I am disassembling to preserve what matters most. But, what was this clipping? One of the "failures" of my education has been not learning German, so I have to resort to Google Translate to start this search. While I didn't type it all in, I did get enough from the beginning:

For the carnival parade on Sunday

Traffic orders from the police headquarters

During the carnival procession in Bad Canstatt on Sunday, February 1, like the police headquarters, around 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The Brunnenstrasse between Wilhelmstrasse and Schmiddener Strasse, Hofener Strasse ...

OK, more street closings and a map. I have no idea what my mother intended by saving this, but yikes it brought me back in time ... to a time when I had a recurrent nightmare brought on my attending a parade. Well, this was obviously the parade.

The Great Northern Hotel (London version)

So we just came home from a very nice trip to London, where we stayed at the Great Northern Hotel, which got me interested in its history and set me wandering/wondering on Google. However, I quickly discovered that simple searching for "great northern hotel" reveals that there were many buildings of this name, not just the one by St. Pancras and King's Cross in London! Thus, I am pairing this post with another one about OTHER "Great Northern Hotels."

The GNH website only gave a short bit about its history:

When the Great Northern Hotel first opened its doors in 1854, the passengers of London flocked. The hotel stood at the centre of London’s revolutionary new age of steam. Guests made the Great Northern Hotel a glamorous destination in central London and a stylish point of departure. 

Now magnificently renovated, the Great Northern Hotel guarantees the glorious glamour of its iconic past is central once again to the King’s Cross St Pancras basin. Lewis Cubitt, great architect of Victorian London, crafted this hotel to catch the eye: its slender curve of robust brick still a bold stamp on a busy landscape.

And I wanted to know more, not just about its renovation, but of how the original hotel appeared and how life was lived in it.  So the following satisfies some of my wander/wonder lust!

The Great Northern Hotels (NOT in London)

As mentioned in the parallel post, our recent stay at the Great Northern Hotel in London had sent me wandering/wondering in Google and led me to a great many other Great Northern Hotels, prompting me to gather together links to all the OTHER "Great Northern Hotels" not in London.

These are organized by location:

Chicag0
New York City
Twin Peaks
Other

How Many Corners Are There? Seven Corners, Four Corners, and More Corners

So, as we drove past Seven Corners (Virginia) yesterday, I asked something which I don't remember pondering before--after over 40 years living here--where did it get its name? And then, further pondered--after then thinking of Four Corners--how many other numbered geographic "Corners" are there? My wife mentioned remembering a Five Corners growing up in Connecticut, but that's as far as we got. This seemed to call for some wondering.

The first question was easily answered. The Wikipedia article tells us that "[t]he change of place name [formerly Fort Buffalo] in the 1950s came about due to the construction of Lee Memorial Boulevard, now known as Arlington Boulevard (U.S. Route 50). The construction of Route 50 caused the formation of a seven cornered intersection—or did until the mouth of Wilson Boulevard was rerouted slightly to avoid all those roadways converging on a single point."  Googling then led me to the follow clear image:

So What About Other Numbered Corners?

Presentation of Manchester Free Trade Hall Relic to City of Leningrad

Among the papers I found recently in a file folder related to the 1964 settlement of the estate of my grandmother Mina Magdalena Jonas,  were the newspaper clipping and two letters. I had no prior knowledge of this. What is amusing is that the clipping, without the letters, would have been very mysterious, as my grandmother is not mentioned by name in the clipping.

Newspaper clipping

Letter from Leonard C. Howitt to
M.M. Jonas, Feb. 7, 1956

Letter from Philip P. Dingle  to
M.M. Jonas, Feb. 29, 1956

However, the accompanying letters make it clear that my grandmother had saved the day by working with the Manchester City Architect to provide the Russian translation so clearly desired. Since this blog is about Internet wandering/wondering, I wondered what this was all about, and about the people involved.