"CELEBRATION"

CELEBRATION, noun

1. Solemn performance; a distinguishing by solemn rites; as the celebration of a marriage, or of a religious festival.

2. A distinguishing by ceremonies, or by marks of joy or respect; as the celebration of a birth day, or other anniversary.

3. Praise; renown; honor or distinction bestowed, whether by songs, eulogies, or rites and ceremonies. - from Noah Webster's 1828 "An American Dictionary of the English Language"

 

It took him 27 years, but farm-boy, schoolmaster, author, lawyer, politician, abolitionist, newspaper editor & American lexicographer Noah Webster finally rounded up somewhere in the neighborhood of 70,000 words, defined them, alphabetized them and spelled them in a uniquely American way.  

 

'Round about the same time, and across the pond, preacher's son, inventor, writer, lecturer, doctor, germaphobe and obsessive list maker, Peter Mark Roget, was working on a way to help us 'say the same thing but in different ways'.  

 

He was the first to expand the possibilities of "celebration" to include such words as jubilee, commemoration, revelry & fanfare.  Fast forward a couple hundred years & the list goes on to include such fantastic words as spree, conviviality, fete, hoopla, hullabaloo and - perhaps my favorite - jollification!

 

In all things cyanotype, the month of March is definitely one to be celebrated!

 

Mathematician, astronomer, chemist, photographer, law school drop out, & inventor of the cyanotype process, Sir John Herschel, was welcomed into this world on March 7, 1792.

 

Botanist, artist, photographer (perhaps the first of the female persuasion), and self-publisher of the first-ever book to use photographs (cyanotypes of course) rather than illustrations, Anna Atkins, was born only seven years later on March 16, 1799.

 

Sooooooooo, in honor of Anna Atkins & Sir John Herschel's upcoming birthdays, show us your interpretation of celebration in blue, of blue, about blue... you get the point.

 

 

DEADLINE:  Wednesday, February 21, 2018 (midnight CST)

>>>>>>>>>>>>EXTENDED DEADLINE:  WEDNESDAY MARCH 7<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

 

 

ONLINE OPENING:  We're aiming for March 28-ish.

 

 

SUBMIT:  See details on "HOW TO SUBMIT" page.