What do we know about this portrait from our research so far? We know
that we are looking for monarchs and presidents and that this flag was in usefrom 1799 until 1917 by "imperial" Russia, followed by its brief use during that
year by a Russian "Republic." We found a few encyclopedias of Russia in oursearch for the flag, including one published by the Cambridge University Press.
Let's begin there.
Cambridge university press
Regional encyclopedias , as with
political dictionaries and
general histories , are typically comprised of general
information. The more extensive the work, the more specific the information itwill contain. However, the goal in publishing them is to present a set of
standard information about a region in the most thorough and comprehensive way.Cambridge University Press is internationally famous for their works in this
area.
As you can see from the table of contents to
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of
Russia , the work is arranged to
facilitate both the quick location of the information you need as well as thesituating it in its historical context. Let's begin with the History
section.
When we skip to the section on Imperial Russia, we notice that the
information is presented chronologically, but divided by eras that are indicatedby regime change, among other things. We soon locate what we are looking for.
Nicholas II: Autocracy under Assault (1892-1904) And we are also granted a portrait.
A quick glance into a second encyclopedia, found next to the above on
the shelf, the
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union, reveals a smaller synopsis of the information with a sketch of a
familiar face.
Nicholas II (Nikolay Alesandrovich) (1868-1918) in the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union It' safe to say that we have a pretty close match for our portrait:
Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia from 1894 until 1917.
Face 6
Face 6 What do we know about this portrait from the research we have done so
far? We know that the flag has been the national flag of France since 1848.Let's begin with a historical dictionary we discovered in the search for the
flag.
Historical dictionary
A historical dictionary resembles both the
regional encyclopedia and the political dictionary in terms of its content. Youwill find it more broad in content than the political dictionary as it will
include more cultural information. It is arranged alphabetically like thepolitical dictionary, but presents information more in line with what you would
find in the regional encyclopedia. Often with works such as these you can gaugethe extent of their coverage by their length. The following selection is from a
set of five volumes"
Historical Dictionary of the Third French Republic, 1870-1940.
We learn from the entry on Kings of France that there has not been one
since the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth-century. Let's tryPresidents. We find that "only two presidents in the Third Republic, Jules Grevy and Albert
Lebrun (and Charles de Gaulle in the Fifth) were to seek and win reelection, Emile Loubert in1906, Armand Fallieres in 1913, Raymond Poincare in 1920, and Gaston Doumerege in 1931 all
resigned after a single term.>Here we have a short list to choose from with one particularly
pertinent in terms of our period. Let's look up Raymond Poincare.We find that he was president from 1913-1920, but no picture. We have had great luck with
our searches for portraits online. Let's see what we can find for ourman.
Raymond Poincare, President of France from 1913 until 1920 and a very
close match for our portrait.
Naming our portraited figures
Let's take a look at what we have
concluded about the portraits in the Souvenir of Egypt
Face 1 is
Husayn Kamil ,
the Sultan of Egypt from 1914 until 1917
Face 2 is
George V , King
of the United Kingdom from 1910 until 1936.
Face 3 is
Victor Emmanuel
III , the King of Italy from 1900 until 1946.
Face 4 is
Albert I , the
king of Belgium from 1900 until 1934.
Face 5 is
Nicholas II ,
Emperor of Russia from 1894 until 1917.
Face 6 is
Raymond
Poincare , President of France from 1913 until 1920
Recall that we narrowed our period in the previous module at the
end of the
Dating our Flags section to 1917-1923. If our identifications above are correct, the short term
of the Sultan of Egypt, 1914-1917 puts our period in the year 1917 itself. Thisinformation will come in very handy in our section on interpreting the meaning
of the silk.
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Source:
OpenStax, Understanding material culture: deciphering the imagery of the "souvenir of egypt". OpenStax CNX. Oct 08, 2006 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10301/1.7
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