Our post on J. Rives Childs, Chargé d'Affaires at the Tangier American Legation during World War II, has elicited a fascinating comment from a friend of his. We repeat David Meyer's letter below to give it proper attention, as Mr. Meyer begins to answer one of the questions we raised in January: does J. Rives … Read more Rives Childs: Remembering the Righteous on Yom Kippur
L to R: Tony Spears, Mhamed Ismaili, Tommy Johnson Earlier this year I joked that the Legation fire plan consisted of praying to St. Florian, patron saint of fire fighters. In the ensuing year, we have made a little progress towards our goal of surviving a fire, and saving the contents of this historic building. … Read more Museum-Quality Extinguishers: Fire Prevention Week
Thanks to a kind member of the TALIM board, I've been alerted to an exhibit in Washington's National Gallery of Art, "The Invention of Glory." Subtitled "Alfonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries," the exhibit features "The Conquest of Tangier." The exhibit is open through January 8, 2012. Today's Washington Post, in an article by culture … Read more Portugal, Morocco, and the Price of Glory
Breaking news from the graphic design world: Graphic Design USA presents a 2011 AMERICAN GRAPHIC DESIGN AWARD to Studio Schaad Design for Enchantment Book Cover and Spreads. We are very pleased for Cathleen Schaad of Studio Schaad, who has designed a beautiful book, beautifully written by Boston University professor Diana Wylie. Ever since its publication … Read more Judged For Its Cover: Enchantment Wins Design Award
Samuel R. Gummere, First American Minister to Morocco (Tangier, 1898 – 1909) Note: This guest post by Mehdi Zainoune, summer intern en route to studies at Sciences Po in Paris, is part of our series of vignettes from the history of Morocco-United States relations. Samuel René Gummere (February 19, 1849 – May 28, 1920) was … Read more Minister Gummere & Teddy Roosevelt’s Big Stick In Morocco
Peindre la Légation It all started with this observation: the art collection at the Legation Museum barely had any images of the Legation building itself. The Tangier American Legation, given to the United States by Morocco's Sultan Moulay Slimane in 1821. America's oldest diplomatic building. It deserves to be the subject of Moroccan, American, and … Read more Paint the Legation
Happy International Museum Day. TALIM – the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies – used to have museum in its name: TALM – the Tangier American Legation Museum. Signs on our street reflect that history, and it is true that people from Tangier and tourists visiting the city know us best as a museum. … Read more TALIM – We Are Also a Museum
"My family arrived in Tangier in June 1947 and thanks to your blog, seven years worth of memories have come flooding back. Until we were able to get a space heater, the humidity and/or rain caused everything to mold–leatherbound books, shoes, even some cake flour sent by a relative in the U.S. We lived with erratic electric service and water turned … Read more TALIMblog – The Kindness of Readers
People often ask "what is a legation?" So I provide the above photo of a page from a dictionary that was published when countries still had legations. And ministers, the people (well, at the time, the men) who headed them. Wikipedia has a limited or stub page on legations. In Tangier, the American Legation and … Read more Le-ga’tion, Defined
Today, Presidents Day in the United States, is a nice hook to link a succession of American Presidents – from George Washington to Barack Obama – to Morocco, and, by extension, to the American Legation in Tangier, home of TALIM. Of all American Presidents who have interacted with their Moroccan counterparts, it is probably George … Read more American Presidents, Morocco, and the Legation in Tangier
