Did any of you know that June 1st is National Window Day? And why you may ask does it fall on June 1st? Because it’s the unofficial beginning of summer.
I’ve been celebrating windows for as long as I’ve been photographing. And, I admit taking them for granted. But not any more now that I’ve done my homework about this national holiday.
Windows, I’ve learned, originated in our earliest primitive shelters with a single hole in the roof, which was mostly to allow light in. Some structures also featured a hole in the wall facilitating ventilation. When it snowed or rained, the holes were covered with animal hides.
Paper windows followed in ancient China, Korea and Japan. Then came the Romans, using glass in Alexandria, Egypt. It’s believed the glass technology was developed around 100 AD, affordable to only the wealthy.
In 14th century England, windows were made of flattened animal horn. During the late Middle Ages in Europe, and during the 1600s, thanks to the growing cheapness of glass, glazed windows became common in ordinary homes.
Lucky for me. Lucky for us all. Happy June 1st.
John Ashbery; New York City.David Auburn; Brooklyn, New York.Russell Banks; Princeton, New Jersey.Saul Bellow; Brattleboro, Vermont.William Blatty; Beverly Hills, California.Toni Cade Bambara; New York City.John Berendt; New York City.Robert Bly; New York City.Stephani Cook; New York City.E.L. Doctorow; New Rochelle, New York.Margaret Drabble with her children, Adam, Rebecca and Joseph; London.Ralph Ellison, New York City.Penelope Fitzgerald; London.Richard Ford; New Orleans, Louisiana.Allegra Goodman; Cambridge, Massachusetts.Joseph Heller; New York City.Shere Hite; New York City.Josephine Humphries; Sullivans Island, South Carolina.Chang-Rae Lee with his daughter Annika; Ridgewood, New Jersey.Anne Morrow Lindbergh; Englewood, New Jersey.Ross Macdonald; Santa Barbara, California.Archibald MacLeish; Conway, Massachusetts.Bernard Malamud; Old Bennington, Massachusetts.Alice McDermott; East Hampton, Long Island.Arthur Miller; New York City.Henry Miller; Pacific Palisades, California.Elsa Morante; Rome.Willie Morris; Jackson, Mississippi.Toni Morrison; New York City.Lewis Mumford; Amenia, New York.Albert Murray; New York City.Ntozake Shange; New York City.Joyce Carol Oates; Princeton, New Jersey.Ann Patchett; Nashville, Tennessee.Anthony Powell; Somerset, England.Ned Rorem; New York City.Oliver Sacks; New York City.Isaac Bashevis Singer; New York City.Susan Sontag; New York City.Elizabeth Spencer; New York City.John Updike; Beverly Farms, Massachusetts.Kurt Vonnegut; Sagaponack, Long Island.Wendy Wasserstein; New York City.Dorothy West; Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.E.B. White; Brooklin, Maine.Colson Whitehead; Brooklyn, New York.Elie Wiesel; New York City.Thornton Wilder; Hamden, Connecticut.P.G. Wodehouse; Remsenburg, Long Island.
