TRX | S5E14 | COLORS

INTRO  According to a website from Arizona State University called askabiologist.asu.edu humans see more colors than some animals do. Your pet dog or cat sees fewer and weaker colors. Their view of the world is made of pastel colors. They don’t detect the brighter vibrant colors that we enjoy. However, spiders and many insects can see a type of light called ultraviolet that most humans cannot see. Other animals like snakes can see infrared light. Cone cells in the eyes help detect colors. Most people have three types of cone cells. If someone doesn’t have all three types of cones, they are considered color blind and may have trouble distinguishing between hues.  

Color can play an important role in conveying information, creating certain moods, and even influencing the decisions people make. Color preferences also exert an influence on the objects people choose to purchase, the clothes they wear, and the way they adorn their environment. I have talked here before about the time in 1966 when my big brother Dick won a color television at the Lion’s Club Carnival. It was one of the first color sets in our town. Color television was very new in the mid-60s and TV shows made the most of it. On NBC each show was introduced with a vibrant animation of the NBC Peacock and the announcement that this show was, “Brought to you in living color on NBC.” Well today we are bringing you this episode both on and in living color for your entertainment and enjoyment pleasure. 

BLACK     Have you ever heard of Vantablack? No, that’s not Vanna White’s replacement on Wheel of Fortune. Vantablack is a deep black material that absorbs 99.96 per cent of the light that hits it. Developed in 2014 by the British tech company Surrey Nano Systems, Vantablack is an extremely black coating that can be applied to various surfaces. It is so black that it can make three-dimensional objects appear totally flat. 

The article from abcnews.com featured a picture of a bronze bust before and after the Vantablack coating. The bust was of a man who sported a mustache and a beard. When we first saw the two pictures, we thought that the second one had just been blacked over with trick photography. You can detect no facial features whatsoever. Even the shiniest black paint that we can imagine would still show the man’s facial features. But with Vantablack the entire bust appears to be just a flat black hole. 

How is Vantablack created? Quoting from the article, “Creating the Vantablack coating starts with catalyst particles no bigger than a nanometer or two in diameter, which, after being saturated with gas, grow into carbon nanotubes. For each square centimeter of coating, there's about a billion of these nanotubes.” So, we are talking about breaking material down into extraordinarily tiny particles and gassing them until they carbonize. Almost all the light that gets into these tubes is absorbed by them. Think about walking through a thick forest of trees and how the light gets absorbed by the tree branches and trunks before it makes it to the ground. This is similar to how the Vantablack tubes work.

So, what are the practical applications of Vantablack? Well, because the carbon nanotubes are very fragile, they can’t be placed where they will come in contact with people, animals, or even environmental elements such as the wind. I know how slimming black clothing can be, but, no, you won’t be able to buy a Vantablack jacket any time soon. But Surrey Nano Systems claims that the material has many uses especially inside telescopes and other instruments used in space.

Because of its light-absorption qualities, Vantablack can improve existing technologies used in space to prevent unwanted light from interfering with telescopes and other light sensitive instruments. We might tend to think of space as just a giant black hole, but there is quite a bit of light reflected from the Sun as well as the Earth and other planets. With Vantablack painted on the sealed interior of these telescopes the unwanted light diminishes and distant planets come into sharper focus. 

Another potential use noted by Surrey Nano Systems would be to prevent light from interfering with the sensors of self-driving cars. Evidently these cars utilize a complicated system of cameras and sensors which can be impacted by stray light. Vantablack may be useful in cutting out stray light which would improve the performance and safety of these cars of the future. 

Surrey Nano Systems says that they are continuing to explore new uses and applications for Vantablack. 

Well, there is one person who saw Vantablack as a potential element in artistic use. A British-Indian sculptor named Anish Kapoor was so excited about the aesthetic possibilities of Vantablack that in 2014 he purchased from Surrey Nano Systems the exclusive rights to the artistic use of it. Kapoor saw the potential of using Vantablack in a new body of work exploring voids in empty space. In 2017 Kapoor linked up with a watchmaker MCT to create a watch with the face coated in the black material. The watch sells for $95,000. 

However, Kapoor’s exclusive deal for Vantablack has angered other artists. That anger spurred a British artist named Stuart Semple to develop and market Black 3.0 which he bills as the world’s blackest mattes liquid paint. His website claims, “like velvet in a bottle, your surface will be covered in a super flat void finish that gives a unique edge to any painting, sculpture or Acme black hole.” On this last note he sports a photo of a footbridge complete with a painted black hole suitable for trapping Wille E Coyote. 

Furthering the rivalry between artists, Semple offers Black 3.0 for sale to anyone in the world except Anish Kapoor. At the checkout on his webpage you must verify that you are in no way related to Anish Kapoor or acting as his agent. Semple also offers other color lines including the pinkest pink and the glitteriest glitter. You can purchase his paint in various sizes at culturehustleusa.com. Supporters of Semple and his backlash against Kapoor have dubbed him, “The Robinhood of the Rainbow”.

How about some songs about the color black? Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones in 1966, Back in Black by AC/DC 1980, Black Dog by Led Zeplin 1971 and Black is Black I Want My Baby Back by Los Bravos 1967.  Can you think of any more?

BLUE      It is difficult to imagine our world without blue in it, but a recent article by Leo Shvedsky from good.is claims that some early cultures didn’t have a word for blue. Shvedsky claims that blue was the last color to appear in many languages, including Greek, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. In Homer’s Odyssey the word doesn’t appear once. Homer describes the sea as “wine dark”.

Shvedsky traces ancient linguistic patterns and notes that the earliest languages distinguished between light and dark. The first color to be described was red followed by yellow and green. Blue was a late comer. The Egyptians were the first to develop a word for blue. They were also the first to develop blue dye. 

This brings up some interesting questions. Obviously, the sky is blue and water on a clear day looks blue as well. But if ancient people didn’t have a word for blue, could they actually see it? This question was put to an interesting experiment recently by psychologist Jules Davidoff who conducted a study in Namibia among the Himba tribe. The Himba have no word for blue in their language. Davidoff showed them a pattern of twelve squares. Ten of the squares were a shade of light green, one was a slightly darker green and one was light blue. The Himba consistently indicated the darker green as the outlier. 

Of course this was just one test but combined with the linguistic information about the development of blue in ancient languages, it may indicate that our early ancestors either could not or chose to not distinguish blue from other colors.

And while we can talk about ancient people and the way the word blue became its own color, there are modern languages that still don’t have a word for blue, namely  Japanese and Lakota Sioux in which they use one word from both blue and green. It brings up the interesting notion that as you look at light passing through a prism you can definitely see the different colors that are produced but they bleed into one another and where you draw the line between one hue and next, say between red and orange, well that’s all very subjective.

THE BLUE PEOPLE OF KENTUCKY      Now this story comes to us from Leah’s old home state of Kentucky. Yes, it’s kind of low hanging fruit to pick odd stories about the rural people from the hills of the eastern part of that beautiful state, but we couldn’t let this one go by. 

Back in 1820 a French orphan named Martin Fugate emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Eastern Kentucky at a place called Troublesome Creek. Martin had one particularly distinguishing feature; his skin was blue! Evidently beauty is in the eye of the beholder because despite his blue skin, Martin did manage to attract a wife and had seven children. Martin’s wife, Elizabeth, was a red head with fair skin. Three of their children were like their mother, but the other four were born with blue skin like Martin. 

The hills of Eastern Kentucky are connected to the Appalachian Mountains and are rugged and steep. As such, only a handful of families lived in the region. Thus, when the Fugate children grew up, they tended to marry within the isolated community of families that had scratched out a living there. Evidently having blue skin was not a deterrent to future spouses as multiple generations of blue-skinned Fugates continued to populate the hills for decades to come. 

For nearly 150 years, no one knew what caused the blue people to turn blue. Some thought it was heart disease or lung disorder, while others described it as a disease where the blood got “too close to the skin.” However, the Blue Fugates as they came to be known didn’t appear to suffer any other malady from their condition. Several lived long healthy lives, even living well into their 90s.

It wasn't until the 1960s that a young hematologist named Madison Cowain began a study of the Blue People. Cawein was an accomplished doctor. He helped isolate the antidote for cholera and helped create a drug for Parkinson’s Disease. He suspected from the start a condition called methemoglobinemia, a rare form of anemia that results from abnormal levels of hemoglobin in the blood. Cowain eventually discovered that the Fugate descendants were lacking an enzyme called diaphorase which helps process hemoglobin and keeps the blood from producing too much methemoglobin. Most people contain less than 1% of methemoglobin in their blood, however the Blue Fugates had between 10 and 20%. This was not enough to be harmful, but too much for normal skin tones. 

Oddly enough, Cowain decided that the antidote for this dilemma was to treat the Fugates with a blue medication. Methylene Blue was the obvious solution as it had been used successfully and safely in the past. Many of the blue folks thought Dr. Cawein was crazy; after all, how could something blue fix the blue in their skin? Nevertheless, Cowain traveled to the cabin of a pair of siblings named Rachel and Patrick Ritchie who were direct descendants of Martin Fugate. He injected Patrick and Rachel with 100 milligrams each of Methylene Blue and within minutes, the pair’s skin began to turn pinkish. By the end of the process, the Ritchies were fair skinned for the first time in their lives. Cowain gave the siblings methylene blue in tablet form to take daily to maintain their skin tone. This success led to the treatment of other Blue Fugates to the point that it is unknown whether any still exist today. 

Now, how about some songs about the color blue? Blue Suede Shoes by Elvis Pressley 1956, Blue Jean by David Bowie 1984, Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton 1963, and Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain by Willie Nelson 1975

--ODDITY DU JOUR ----------------------

RED     From among a world of colors red stands out the most. Many cultures around the globe have an attachment to red, but perhaps none more so than China. In ancient times red stood for dignity and mystery. Today the color is still wildly popular in China.

One of the ways that this tradition is carried out today is with red knots. The Chinese knot is an ancient way of weaving and has been used as a decoration since the Han Dynasty some 2,000 years ago. The red knot has come to be the symbol of reunion, luck, harmony, and love. The square-shaped “True Love Knot” is the most famous type of Chinese knot. Instead of bending down on one knee and proposing, you can choose a light-hearted and humorous way to suggest marriage by giving your sweetheart the True Love Knot, indicating "Let's tie the knot."

Red lanterns are part of every Chinese festival. Lanterns in China are more than just for lighting. Red lanterns are regarded as a basic symbol of the Chinese culture, a symbol of brightness, happiness, and reunion. Traditionally red lanterns were thought to ward away evil spirits as well as brightening the home with the red glow of good luck. 

There is a unique custom in China called Hongbao. It is part of the Spring Fest during the Chinese New Year. On the first morning of the new year children greet their grandparents by bowing before them and saying, “We wish you a prosperous new year, now may I have my red envelope please?” The older members of the family will then give the youngsters a red envelope with a gift of money. The elderly may also place red envelopes under their pillows as an added surprise. 

COCA COLA RED       If I were to say “soft drink” to most anyone in the world, it’s likely that their first image will be that of Coca Cola. Developed in Atlanta, Georgia back in the 1880s by John Pemberton, Coca Cola can be found in virtually every country in the world. It is reported that the formula for making Coca Cola is such a tight secret that only two people in the world know it. But did you know that there is a second secret?

That would be the formula for creating Coca Cola Red, the brilliant color that has been closely associated with the brand since its beginning. John Pemberton’s business partner was a man named Frank Robinson. Robinson suggested the name Coca‑Cola and crafted the iconic script logo. He also liked the way red print looked on a white background. He would write “Coca‑Cola Delicious and Refreshing” with red lettering over a white background on the company’s earliest signage. 

Robinson had a specific blend of paint created for the company’s advertising. Coca Cola Red has become exclusively identifiable with the soft drink. Their website calls this, “Our second secret formula”. In 1948 they developed the red disc with white lettering that could be spotted from a distance. If you were driving through a small town and spotted that red disc, then you knew that you would be able to locate a delicious and refreshing Coca Cola product within. Today the Coca Cola line has several flavors of soft drinks including Diet Coke and Coke Zero, but they are still easily identified by sporting the Coca Cola Red in their packaging. 

And now some songs about the color red. Red Solo Cup by Toby Keith 2011, Red High Heels by Kellie Pickler 2006, Lady with the Red Dress by Snow 1993, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer by Gene Autrey 1949.

GREEN      Today when we think of the color green, we often associate it with environmental concerns and outdoor health. It overall has a positive reputation. OK, there was that period during the 70s when avocado green was a popular color for kitchen appliances, but apart from that, we generally like green. But there was a time when people were suspicious of the color.

The medieval period of some 600 years ago was a period of great art. Michaelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, and Donatello created their great masterpieces in this period. (Their names were later given to the TMNT which we discussed in our S5E11 about turtles which are also green.) People in the middle ages had a great understanding and appreciation for art. The problem is that in nature there were not any green pigments that were bright and vibrant. Thus, to make a bright green, an artist had to mix yellow and blue pigments. Medieval folks took ideas of pigment purity very seriously. It gave green a connotation of fakeness as being against nature — completely the opposite of how we think about green today.

GREEN BOOKS WITH ARSENIC     An article from the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s website cbc.ca sheds some light on a group of books from the mid-1800s which contained a surprise. Melissa Tedone, a conservator at Delaware's Winterthur Museum was examining a rare copy of Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste by Shirley Hibberd written in 1857. The book’s cover was a beautiful shade of emerald green which was also known as Paris Green. This shade was quite fashionable for book covers during the 1800s. However, as she examined the book, she found green pigment flaking off, which struck her as unusual. Testing the pigment with X-ray fluorescence and a spectroscope, Melissa confirmed the pigment contained arsenic. 

Evidently in the 1800s it was common for bookbinders to cover lower grades of vellum with a pigment known as vergaut. This was created by mixing indigo and orpiment, a yellow-orange arsenic sulfide mineral. 

Were they trying to poison readers who might be handling the book? Melissa doesn’t think so. "They weren't trying to keep people from putting their hands on these books," she said, “It just created a nice color of green." Melissa has joined an effort that is known as The Poisonous Book Project to bring attention to the public about the potential for certain books to contain arsenic in their covers.

It is unknown if anyone has been harmed by the arsenic coated books. "We just want to make people aware of the potential hazards so that we can avoid any tragedy ever happening from one of these books,” Melissa said. So far, the project has identified 95 different books from the 1800s that used Emerald Green on their covers. She notes that not all green-covered books published in the 19th century contain arsenic, and people with older books at home shouldn't panic. As a practice, Melissa wears gloves when handling older books. Those books which have been identified as poisonous are placed in plastic containers and removed from the public shelves. 

If you have an antique book with a green cover and you want to know whether it contains arsenic, you can locate the Poison Book List at udel.edu/poisonbookproject/

Now how about some songs about the color green? Green Eyed Lady by Sugarloaf 1970, Green Green Grass of Home by Johnny Darnell (covered by dozens of others) 1965. Green Disease by Pearl Jam 2002, and of course It Isn’t Easy Being Green by Kermit the Frog 1980.

ORANGE      Orange is a mix of two primary colors, yellow and red. In fact, the color used to be called yellow red or geoluhread (soft g as in gyellow-red) in some European languages. In the late 1400s the Portuguese brought orange trees back to Europe from the Middle East. The fruit became so popular that people began substituting the Arabic fruit name for the color. The earliest written use of the English word Orange is from 1502 in a description of some of the fabric put aside for Princess Margaret Tudor on her marriage to King James IV of Scotland.

As I’m sure you know, orange is one of the most prevalent colors in nature. From ripe fruits and vegetables, to changing fall leaves, and beautiful flowers, orange can be found anywhere and during any season. Orange’s prevalence in nature means that we see it used frequently in art. Pomona, the Roman goddess of apples, is often shown wearing an orange dress or cloak. However, in ancient times one of the main sources of orange paint was the above-mentioned orpiment which contained arsenic. It wasn’t until 1797 that a safe orange pigment was developed. That means if you have an old painting that contains orange pigment, then it could also contain arsenic. Vincent Van Gogh who lived in the late 1800s used a lot of safe orange in his paintings. 

Orange is one of the most visible colors. Construction signs, safety equipment, life vests, and prison jump suits are all made of orange because of its visibility. In fact, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is painted orange so that ships will be more likely to see it in the dense fog which often envelopes the bay. 

Some cultures regard orange as a sacred color because it balances red’s power and yellow’s perfection. Monks and holy men in some Asian religions, like Buddhism, wear orange robes because that dye has been readily available historically. In other places orange is a sign of royalty. The royal family in The Netherlands is known as The House Of Orange. Even though it doesn’t appear on their flag, most Dutch claim orange as their national color. 

The relatively new psychological field of “color psychology” states that orange lovers have a preference for adventure. They bring spontaneity and maintain a positive outlook on life. People who love orange tend to exert a confident aura, which may become either inspiring or annoying to others.

How about some songs about orange? The Orange Blossom Special by Charlie Daniels 1974, Orange Soda by Baby Keen 2019, The Orange Juice Song by Deep Purple, 2000, and Hello Orange Sunshine by Judy and Mary 1994.

YELLOW     In our S5E3 called Found we talked about the Lascaux Cave Paintings in France. These paintings were discovered by four teenage boys in 1940 but are believed to be some 17,000 years old. Among the colors used in these paintings it appears that yellow played a prominent role. The yellow pigment from ochre, a mineral rich clay, was readily available in prehistoric times and one of the first pigments used in cave art. However, yellow has a complicated history. 

According to a website called hunterlab.com yellow was also used by Egyptian and Roman artists to depict skin color. Renaissance and Medieval artists used “Indian yellow” a pigment obtained when a cow eats only mango leaves. This is actually considerably cruel as certain cows were fed a steady diet of mango leaves so that their urine produced a bright yellow color. The yellow paint was made from the urine of these maltreated cows.  This color was used to show a person as an outsider, especially Judas Iscariot from the Bible.

Yellow was the color of Chinese royalty. The tiled roof of the Forbidden City was yellow, and yellow clothing was reserved for the emperor to wear. Even today the Chinese believe that decorating your kitchen with yellow will bring good luck to the household. 

But most of the rest of the world has had differing opinions about yellow. According to a blog called thesimplestencil.com yellow is a very upbeat hue that inspires hope, clear-mindedness and overall cheerfulness. They claim that if you are attracted to yellow you likely have a lot of energy. Dorothy and her three companions found their way to the Emerald City via the Yellow Brick Road.

On the other hand, the bbc.com claims that yellow is the cruelest color. They cite the above mentioned cows as one instance of yellow’s cruelty. Quoting from the article, “When seen in such unsettling light, masterpieces such as Turner’s The Angel Standing in the Sun (1846) and Van Gogh’s The Starry Night (1889) take on a different sheen, appearing to be steeped in the enduring residue of bygone brutality.” In addition, if you are called “Yellow” it means you are a coward. The term Yellow Bellied was a jazz age insult. Yellow is the color of penalty cards in soccer and penalty flags in American football. 

Who knew that a color could be so controversial?

Now how about some songs about yellow? Yellow Roses by Dolly Parton 1989, Tie A Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree by Tony Orlando and Dawn 1973, Yellow Submarine by The Beatles 1966, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John 1973, Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini by Brian Hyland 1960, and finally simply Yellow by Coldplay in 2000.

PINK    Pink is one of the most eye-catching colors in the world. According to color-meaning.com, “Pink occurs in nature just often enough that it feels comforting but is also rare enough to catch our attention.”

Of course, pink is very popular today and is especially identified as being a feminine color. According to Smithsonian.com the 2023 mega hit movie Barbie used so much florescent fuchsia pink paint in creating the movie sets that it contributed to a worldwide shortage of the paint color. 

So how did pink become so popular? Pink’s popularity can be traced back to 18th Century France to one particularly popular aristocrat named Madame de Pompadour. She was closely tied to the court of King Louis XV (15th) and was praised for her keen fashion sense. In modern terms she would have been considered a top tier social influencer. Madame de Pompadour loved the color pink and was not a bit shy about it. As her popularity and influence grew, so did the use of pink in all manner of fashion. This trend caught the attention of people outside the inner circle of the King’s Court and many people began copying the trend in an effort to appear more regal. Before Madame de Pompadour, pink was a mostly overlooked color. It was not associated with girls at all. If anyone thought about pink, they tended to consider it as a less conventional red. 

Though the monarchy would not survive in France, the popularity of pink did. In the 1800s pink was embraced by the middle class and was popular with both men and women. Though it was likely more common to see women clothed in pink, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for men to wear shirts with some pink elements. Home decorators began suggesting that bedrooms be painted pink because of its calming qualities. 

Then in the mid 20th century a new social influencer became a well-known embracer of pink. Mamie Eisenhower. Yes, you heard that right. When Dwight Eisenhower won the presidency in 1952 his wife Mamie was right by his side wearing one of her many pink dresses. Light pink was her favorite shade. Color television was not around yet, but color photography was becoming more commonplace, and magazine covers sported bright color photos of the new first lady. She became so closely associated with this shade that it became known as Mamie Pink or First Lady Pink. 

But it wasn’t just pink dresses that Mamie liked. She loved pink decorations too. She had so much pink in the White House that members of the press nicknamed it the Pink Palace. Again, magazine spreads complete with color photographs depicting Mamie’s pink tastes began to be copied by home designers throughout the country. Thousands of Mid-Century homes were constructed that sported pink bathroom tiles and kitchen counter tops. Though pink likely was popular with girls and women before Mamie came along, her love for the color appears to have cemented pink’s association with women. 

Now how about some songs about pink? Well wait, instead, let’s talk about Pink the entertainer. According to Billboard Magazine Alecia Beth Moore was born in Doylestown, PA in 1979. As a teen she got her start singing in Philadelphia venues and began using the name Pink. She released her first album Can’t Take Me Home in 2000. There You Go, a single from this album, hit #7 on the Billboard chart. She has since had multiple #1 hits including Lady Marmalade in 2001, So What in 2008, and Raise Your Glass in 2010.

PURPLE    Purple has a strong relationship with royalty and power because it used to be a very rare color. A website called thefactsite.com states that originally, purple came from a dye made from the mucus glands of a tropical sea snail known as the murex. The Latin name for the murex was purpura which is where our word purple came from. A color of such rarity was very expensive and beyond the reach of most people, thus it became associated with kings and queens. It is interesting to note that this association with royalty was not limited to just one section of the world, but was commonly shared throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa.

According to bbc.com a particular shade known as Tyrian purple was highly coveted by Roman emperors. This shade was derived from shellfish and was worth more than three times its weight in gold. Cleopatra was obsessed with it to the point that, in a show of her wealth, she had the sail of her private boat covered with it. Some Roman emperors decreed that anyone caught wearing Tyrian purple, other than them, would be sentenced to death. This must have been one astonishing shade of purple! The thing is, we don’t know exactly what it looked like. No one today knows how to make it because the elaborate recipes used to extract and process the dye have been lost.

Purple is relatively rare in nature, but of course there are notable exceptions. In the plant world we find lavender, violets, irises, and of course grapes. Purple sea stars or starfish are a common sight along the Pacific coastlines of North America. But here’s a rare purple insect I bet you didn’t know about. The purple emperor butterfly can emit a bright purple shade through its translucent wings. It is only the male of the species that does this, evidently in an effort to attract females. According to the natural history museum of the U.K. the purple emperor butterfly isn’t all that regal. Despite the royal nickname, the purple emperor has some downright filthy habits. It shuns flowers in favor of rotting flesh, muddy puddles and even human sweat, and spends its time getting into drunken brawls for females, fueled up on oak sap.

Now how about some songs about purple? The Purple People Eater by Sheb Wooley 1958, Purple Haze by Jimmy Hendrix 1967, Purple Sky by Kid Rock 2010, and Deep Purple by Donnie and Marie Osmond 1978.

WHITE   Some people may think we’re cheating a little on this next part where we talk about white. In regular color theory white it isn’t actually a color, but rather the absence of color. Yet white can be striking. Among the most beautiful sites in the world are the white homes that are built along the shorelines of the beautiful Greek islands. We’ve been told that they go through a lot of white paint. 

White has different meanings to various cultures. In Western Europe and the Americas white stands for cleanliness and purity. For this reason, wedding dresses are white. The Pope has worn white as a symbol of sacrifice and purity since 1566. However, in India white is symbolic of mourning. Widows here typically wear white whereas brides wear red or other bright colors. In the Japanese religion Shinto, a place with white stones or gravel is sacred, as spirits dwell there.

Now there is a common myth that we need to dispel. Of course, it is well known that the most powerful person in the government of the United States is the president, and where does the president live? The White House of course. And why is it white? Well, you may have heard that it was painted white in order to hide the scars that the building incurred during the War of 1812 when the British set it on fire. But according to the building’s own website whitehousehistory.org the presidential mansion was being referred to as the White House before the War of 1812. The building was first made white with lime-based whitewash in 1798, when its walls were finished, simply as a means of protecting the porous stone from cracking in freezing weather. They also point to a letter written before the War of 1812 by Congressman Abijah Bigelow to a colleague in which he states, "There is much trouble at the White House, as we call it, I mean the President's house." 

The original whitewash painted in 1798 was primarily for protection, but as it gradually wore off the decision was made that it looked nice white, and so more whitewash was added and later replaced with white lead paint. Though the phrase White House was commonly used throughout the 19th century, the name didn’t become official until Teddy Roosevelt formalized it in 1901. 

And now how about some songs about the color white? A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation by Marty Robbins 1957, Nights in White Satin by The Moody Blues 1972, Play That Funky Music White Boy by Wild Cherry 1975, Pretty Fly For A White Guy by The Offspring 1999, White Horse by Taylor Swift 2009, and of course White Christmas by Bing Crosby 1942.

We hope that you have enjoyed our journey through the color wheel.

Phil here reminding you to check out our Facebook and Instagram pages @RemnantStewPodcast. Drop us an email at StayCurious@RemnantStew.com just to say hi or to let us know about any topics you would like to hear us cover in an upcoming episode.

Remnant Stew is part of Rook & Raven Ventures and is created by me, Leah Lamp. Steve Meeker researches and writes each episode that we then host together. Our audio producer is Phillip Sinquefield. The Oddity Du Jour is brought to you by Sam Lamp. Theme music is by Kevin MacLeod with voiceover by Morgan Hughes. Special thanks goes out to Judy Meeker. For a complete list of sources for this episode please see this episode’s transcript, there’s a link in the show notes.

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Until next time remember to choose to be kind…AND ALWAYS STAY CURIOUS!

--SOURCES ----------------------

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https://www.whitehousehistory.org/questions/why-is-the-white-house-white

www.verywellmind.com

www.askabiologist.asu.edu