Five Things: Summer 2024

1

One of the earliest devices to show animations was called a phenakistoscope, a spinning cardboard disk invented in 1832 that created the illusion of movement when viewed in a mirror.

2

Photo: Tom Little

Before it was installed at the entrance of Carnegie Museum of Art for the 1985 Carnegie International, the late Richard Serra’s towering 40-foot steel sculpture Carnegie was set up in a trial erection at Pittsburgh-Des Moines Corporation on Neville Island. The practice session took several days but proved worthwhile, as the final installation at the museum went much smoother, taking less than four hours.

Richard Serra, Carnegie, 1985, Given in memory of William R. Roesch by his wife Jane Holt Roesch © Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

3

Photo: GLBT Historical Society

Happy LGBTQ+ Pride Month! The original rainbow pride flag was designed in 1978 by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker, inspiring the dozens of other pride flag designs that will be flying in parades and festivals this June.

4

The largest animal ever to inhabit Earth?  That distinction belongs to the blue whale (not dinosaurs!), which can reach up to 110 feet long and weigh nearly 200 tons.

5

Photo: Local Historia

The inspiration for Penn State’s “Nittany Lion” mascot was a taxidermy specimen displayed at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, and later stored at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, before returning to the university in 1996.