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Lead was used as a pigment and drying agent in "alkyd" oil based paint. "Latex" water based paints generally have not contained lead. About two-thirds of the homes built before 1940 and one-half of the homes built from 1940 to 1960 contain heavily-leaded paint. Some homes built after 1960 also contain heavily-leaded paint. It may be on any interior or exterior surface, particularly on woodwork, doors, and windows. In 1978, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission lowered the legal maximum lead content in most kinds of paint to 0.06% (a trace amount). Consider having the paint in homes constructed before the 1980s tested for lead before renovating or if the paint or underlying surface is deteriorating. This is particularly important if infants, children, or pregnant women are present.

The ancient Egyptians drew (and carved) figures of gods and goddesses, people, animals, and everyday objects on tomb and temple walls, stellae, obelisks, and papyrus. They believed in the magical quality of these figures. For example, they believed that after a body was placed in a tomb and the doors were sealed, the figures on the walls (and even models of figures made of clay) would come alive to serve the deceased in the afterlife. For this reason, pharaohs and nobles had plenty of pictures (and figures) of servants to wait on them for all eternity!

Sacred Texts were placed in the tombs of the Egyptian elite to guide the soul of the deceased through various obstacles as it journeyed between this world and the next. These texts included special words and phrases (known as spells) that, if uttered at particular times and places, enabled the soul to arrive at the edge of the land of the dead. During the Old Kingdom (the earliest period of dynastic Egyptian history, dating from the third millennium BC), these writings were carved onto the walls of the pyramids of the pharaohs and their queens. The texts were accompanied by illustrations of the soul's perilous journey and eventual arrival in the land of the dead. (These are known as the Pyramid Texts.)

During the Middle Kingdom (beginning in 2055 BC), passages and drawings from the Pyramid Texts were painted directly onto the wooden coffins of wealthy nobles and Egyptian royalty. (They are known as the Coffin Texts.) During the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC), sacred funereal texts (and illustrations) were painted on papyrus scrolls. These were in large part derived from the earlier texts and are referred to as individual versions of The Book of the Dead. A scroll was rolled up and placed in a special container in the coffin beside the body. In addition to the scrolls, many pharaohs who were buried in the Valley of the Kings had copies of The Book of the Dead carved and painted on the walls and ceilings of their tombs.

An important part of The Book of the Dead was a pictorial description of the drama that would supposedly unfold when the soul arrived in the land of the dead. The soul (which resembled the deceased person) was first greeted by Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead, who posed a number of questions about the quality of the person's life on earth. (The appropriate answers were conveniently written above the drawings for easy reference.) Then Anubis, the jackal-headed god of mummies, placed the heart of the deceased on a scale. If it balanced with a feather (this symbolized truth and goodness), the soul would go on to enjoy a very pleasant afterlife. But if the heart was heavier than a feather, a monster named Ammut (part hippo, part lion, and part crocodile) was waiting to gobble it (the soul) up! Thoth, the ibis-headed god of scribes, stood by the scales, ready to write down the verdict, while 42 other gods sat in judgment. Overseeing the ceremony was Ma'at, the goddess of truth. (She's easy to spot - she has a feather on her head!) Because the ancient Egyptians believed in magic, they assumed that everything depicted in the paintings of the Book of the Dead would actually occur once the tomb was sealed.

This series of lectures will begin with a consideration of some of the first furniture (tree-stump chairs), and metalwork (leg-irons), made in the colony, as well as the earliest buildings and their interiors. The lecture will go onto discuss the great flowering of cabinet making in the early 19th century, the possibility of an identifiable Australian style, the boom of cabinet making and gold and silver smithing that occurred following the discovery of gold.The decorative arts has come to include a broad spectrum of disciplines such as furniture, silver, metalwork, jewellery, ceramics, glass, textiles, fashion, and the popular arts, such as quilt-making.

Velosophie, a weeklong discussion series of the Illinois Humanities Council in partnership with the League of Illinois Bicyclists, provides cyclists with the opportunity to flex their mental muscle after a long day of physical exercise. As they bike the Grand Illinois Trail and Park Ride, participants consider the relationship of their bodies and their minds, meeting nightly at campsites to discuss novels, short stories, poems, and philosophical texts on themes relating to the experience of being out on the road, on a bicycle, pushing through exhaustion and learning to embrace solitude.

Lewis does admit, however, that "people don't like reading philosophy, ever," and athletes might seem like the least likely candidates for students of, say, Heidegger, whose essay "The Question Concerning Technology" was a reading selection in 2005. But Lewis and his collaborators, Mark Rockwell and Adam Davis, were determined to make philosophy texts an integral part of the program.

Physical and mental exertion are more than just parallels; each can make the other a richer experience. Riding a bike for five or six hours a day, even if it's "not Tour de France speed," is "hard work," Lewis says, "and there's some reason why you find that to be a valuable experience."

Part of Lewis's mission with Velosophie is "taking the questioning spirit into places where you wouldn't expect the humanities," and some of Velosophie's most enthusiastic participants would never otherwise have ventured into the unknown terrain of Kafka's stories or Czeslaw Milosz's poetry.

Artists are often particularly keen observers and precise recorders of the physical conditions of the natural world. As a result, paintings can be good resources for learning about ecology. Teachers can use this lesson to examine with students the interrelationship of geography, natural resources, and climate and their effects on daily life. It also addresses the roles students can take in caring for the environment. Students will look at paintings that represent cool temperate, warm temperate, and tropical climates. An activity addressing the other climate categories can be found in the Activities section of the lesson.

If you enjoy this lesson, there's more! This lesson is one in a series of four which are adapted from the Gallery's free-loan teaching packet "Art &." The four lessons share a similar format, but focus on different areas of curriculum. Other topics include origin myths, heroes and heroines, and 19th-century America.


In this lesson students will

To support River EcoJourneys, a visual arts residency program. Professional artists will work with classroom teachers at two elementary schools in St. Paul to integrate visual arts and science studies to increase students' knowledge about the intersections between art and nature.

To support steel pan music residency programs. Components will include 25 weeks of in-school and after-school steel pan classes given by professional teaching artists, student ensemble performances, and family events at each of the participating schools.

John Updike's discerning eye has made him an acute observer of American culture and art," said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. "His fiction, prose, essays, and poetry over the years have provided invaluable insights into the human condition and into the humanities. The Endowment is proud to have one of the nation's most distinguished authors as our 37th Jefferson Lecturer.

John Updike is the author of more than fifty books including collections of short stories, poems, and criticism and is one of our nation's leading literary critics. He has published several books of art history and criticism including Just Looking: Essays on Art (1989) and Still Looking: Essays on American Art (2005). Recently, Updike has extended his views on art into his fictional work, chronicling the rise of American Expressionism after World War II in Seek My Face (2002). His new novel, The Widows of Eastwick, will be published this fall.

Updike's well-known series of novels about Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom have brought him international acclaim and national recognition. Rabbit is Rich (1981) won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 and Rabbit at Rest (1990) received that same honor in 1991. His novels also have won the National Book Award (1964, 1982), the American Book Award (1995), the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction (1981, 1990), the Rosenthal Award (1960), the Howells Medal (1995), and the Campion Medal (1997). Updike received the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2004 for The Early Stories 1953-1975 and the Rea Award for the Short Story in 2006 for significant contribution to the short story form.

From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of The New Yorker and has since served as a regular contributor. His reviews have appeared in The New York Review of Books and his poems in the Oxford American. Time magazine featured Updike on its cover in 1968 and 1982.

In recognition for his literary and critical work, John Updike was presented the National Humanities Medal by President Bush in 2003. Updike is one of the few Americans to receive both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts, which he received in 1989.