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My World: Bring me my bow of burning gold, Bring me my arrow of desire!

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
So the English tried to rebuild memories of Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant lands. But since the folks who went there had visions of castles and medieval cathedrals on the way to the Holy Land, they became obsessed with returning that feelings of heraldry and of worship to the Universities that multiplied in all the great cities after the industrial revolution. Birmingham University was the first "Red Brick University to receive a royal charter in 1900, but the Medical School goes back to 1828!


BirminghamUniversityCrest.svg


Shield from the arms of the University of Birmingham
Per Ardua Ad Alta "Through efforts to high things"



Birmingham has one of the strongest and most well regarded "such "Red Brick Universities. That's where some 120 or so eager kids of 18 years old bravely walked up the steps, were checked at the security desk, (men with white shirts, ties and jackets and black shoes and women no high heels or nail polish) ....and then we were suddenly immerse in the smell of formaldehyde and the violation of corpse! We lost out nervousness within weeks as we worked so hard to understand every bone, tendon, blood vessel and nerve in the human body!

In the main campus, 15 minutes walk away, there was the great hall in a gothic style and with heritage of a great cathedral. Before the stage was a giant emblem woven into a rich carpet and the instruction, "Per ardua ad alta"


Here is a picture I took at a revisit with my good friend from Pakistan, Ahmed. His wife was in my class too but he was an engineer in the main campus.

[Group 0]-_R104917__R104924-8 images_0000 Ahmed.jpg



Asher Kelman: Ahmed at The great Hall at Birmingham University

Birmingham 2015
Overlapping frames with Ricoh GR
Stitched with Autopano Giga 4.2


We met after 50 years celebrating the Medical School class of 1965.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
50 years as a Doc. Well done Asher.
Was that part of the reason for the European jaunt?
Andy,

Nice to have you drop by! I used the reunion as an excuse to catch up with folk I miss and have admired so much. But also I wanted to pay homage to the natural beauty of the British Isles by visiting the as yet unspoiled Lake District, North of Birmingham on the way to Scotland. I will share pictures in due course. First I will show more of Birmingham!

Asher
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Asher, some memories the visit must have brought back.
This is surely much more than the beautiful image....

I hope you share more of your visit with us.
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Asher,

Wonderful story and wondrous images.

These "early" experiences we have, whatever the venue or occasion, leave amazing imprints not just on our memories but on our very nature. They are important nodes that anchor "the arc of life".

With all due respect to Ives et al, I myself prefer to translate "per ardua ad alta" as "through great difficulty to the heights".

I suspect to characterize your medical training as "greatly difficult" is still an understatement. In fact, the word "arduous" comes to mind. Wonder what it's etymology is.

Thanks so much.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The Great Hall from the exterior:



[Group 4]-_R104887__R104888-2 Great Hall Ext.jpg


Asher Kelman: The Great Hall, Birmingham University

Birmingham 2015

Ricoh GR Adjacent filelds
assembled in Autopano Giga 4.2

This is where Graduation occurs with much pomp....and also political debates broadcast on national TV for General Elections!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
A Window on Access To Higher Education in the British Isles in the 20th Century

To remind everyone, the Redbrick Universities, bring from "Oxbridge", (that is the finest old traditions of the most venerable British Universities, Oxford and Cambridge, where layers of tradition, honor, service and privilege have been inherited through the ages), to fabulous new institutions to be available more broadly to the general population!

That is the "premise" of the growth of Redbrick universities all over the British Isles. Their blood line goes back to the earliest roots of learning and Christendom, Aristocracy, Royal Charters, Heraldry, Glory in Scholarship and in many Wars and of course even back to medieval knights and the English involvement in the Crusades. All of this is in the wonderful "DNA" of British higher education.

Just that the students of the Redbrick colleges do not wear black gowns, have a junior classman "F a g" system of right of passage, the need to study Latin or Greek, play cricket, row racing skiffs or even get brutal in the scrums and mud baths of Rugby football!



Part of this trimmed-down tradition is clearly evident in the Cathedral-like model
for the Great Hall for Assemblies, Convocations and Debate. So there's always an
Ecclesiastical "flavor" to the architecture and heraldry in the Redbrick genome.



This is very important, since, by the middle of the 20th Century, the system of Redbrick Universities was already mature with academics, research and scholarship ranking with the best international institutions of higher learning. They provided the above-average and dedicated student, far easier access to higher education. These students represented a far different sampling if the U.K. than those whose parents had a decade ago, put one's name down, (before one's birth), to enter Harrow, Eaton or some other "school" reserved for the elite and super-connected, so accessing inside tracks to both Oxford and Cambridge colleges, as if this was ordained in heaven. Well that was their fate! Even when Oxbridge colleges opened up to more fair competition, the atmosphere was rather crisply well-mannered and immersed in the same magnetic center of “connections” and power. The customs and vocabulary and social norms made it necessary for someone coming from an ordinary Grammar School under the jurisdiction of some City Council or County, for example, Middlesex County in London, to quickly assimilate to enjoy the fruits of the place.

But the Redbrick Universities were far more of an amalgam of divers British society with the strong core institutional symbols, (modeled on "Oxbridge"), now providing metaphors for an honored and noble path to learning and achievement, not via privilege, but through hard work and dedication. Just that there was no Ivy and high-born rarified sauntering snobby accents of the aristocracy………. and forget jokes with the punch line in Latin or Greek!

I have attempted to convey this aura of opportunity to distinguish oneself by the placement of a single crimson chair, center stage in the Great Hall. Thus I try to represent the impact of all this, on a student coming to the University for the first time. One stands there in this massive ornate structure of authority. With each glance and breath of the cold autumn air one imbibes the expectations waiting to be met to and accomplishments aching to be achieved by one's own will power and focus.

Great Hall Int Chair and Large Shield Per Ardua Ad Alta FINAL.jpg


Asher Kelman: Per Ardua Ad Alpa
The Great Hall of Birmingham University August 2015
Ricoh GR adjacent frames assembled in Autopano giga 4.2
Processed with Topaz in PS CC 2015


I do hope that you might enjoy the sense of tradition and endeavor one experiences as a new student and a whenever one returns!


Asher
 
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thanks James! Just with the very humble Ricoh GR!

More and more, I realize that one can achieve a lot with diligence as ones lens!

Asher
 

StuartRae

New member
Great photos Asher. They bring back memories of watching my son walk onto the stage to receive his degree, back in 1993.

Regards,
Stuart
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
To Stuart Rae,

I would like to dedicate this to you Stuart, as it has within these great halls the essence of what is noble in England.

Asher
 

Chris Calohan

Well-known member
Love the backstory and love The Great Hall at Birmingham and though admittedly I have not been there since 1965, the year you graduated, I think I remember a far less golden hue as your shots seem to portray. So, I went online and looked at some recent images and I am correct in my memory. Thus I've done some color cast removal to put your colleague in the best possible light.
43352517484_108cd309d6_b_d.jpg
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Love the backstory and love The Great Hall at Birmingham and though admittedly I have not been there since 1965, the year you graduated, I think I remember a far less golden hue as your shots seem to portray. So, I went online and looked at some recent images and I am correct in my memory. Thus I've done some color cast removal to put your colleague in the best possible light.
43352517484_108cd309d6_b_d.jpg

Interesting version. The fellow on the stage is from Pakistan. He is rather dark.

Still, I did not, as far as I remember use a Gretag McBeth card or WhBal as a reference. I do think, also looking at the images online, your choice makes the Stone too new but I have no proof.

Still I appreciate your kind effort at determining the truth of the matter.

Did you stufmdy there too?

Asher
 
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