On This Date

Ride On The Peace Ship

In 1915, Henry Ford's peace ship, Oscar II, (commonly the Peace Ship) sailed for Europe 'to get the boys out of the trenches by Christmas.' The peace mission was deemed unsuccessful, producing only inconsequential meetings with less-than-official representatives from several European governments. Nevertheless, Ford asserted that the Peace Ship's expedition was successful because it stimulated discussions about peace. And Oscar II.

I Like It Like That 

In 1961, the New York Museum of Modern Art finally hung Henri Matisse's picture, a paper cut from 1953, "Le Bateau" (The Boat), the right side up. Only one person, stockbroker Genevieve Habert, among the 116,000 visitors to the exhibition, "The Last Works of Henri Matisse,"  noticed that one of Matisse's elegant late career cutouts (his Rorschach test?) was hanging upside down for the last forty-seven days.  

 
Note: Some may have said they preferred it upside down. Maybe sideways.