W. & D. Downey

W. & D. Downey were Victorian studio photographers operating in London from the 1860s to the 1910s.

William Downey (14 July 1829 in South Shields – 7 July 1915 in Kensington), who came to be known as the Queen's Photographer, was born in King Street in South Shields, a decade before commercial photography had become a reality. William, initially, was a carpenter and boatbuilder, but in about 1855 he set up a studio in South Shields with his brother Daniel and later established branches in Blyth, Morpeth and Newcastle. Their first Royal commission was to provide photographs for Queen Victoria of the Hartley Colliery Disaster in January 1862. Daniel Downey is his brother (1831 – 15 July 1881).

In 1863 they opened a studio on Eldon Square in Newcastle. The same year William set up a studio in the Houses of Parliament and produced portraits of every parliamentarian of the day. The resulting images' location is unknown to this day.

William moved to 57 & 61 Ebury Street in London in 1872 and opened another studio, his brother managing the Newcastle branch. The London studio enjoyed the patronage of Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales, taking photos at Balmoral and Frogmore during the 1860s. Its first Royal image was of the Princess of Wales at the York Agricultural Show in about 1865. The studio also produced the iconic carte-de-visite portrait of the Princess of Wales piggybacking Princess Louise. The studio received a Royal Warrant in 1879.

WD

WD may refer to:

Wądół, Pomeranian Voivodeship

Wądół [ˈvɔnduu̯] (German: Charlottental) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Kołczygłowy, within Bytów County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately 13 kilometres (8 mi) south of Kołczygłowy, 16 km (10 mi) west of Bytów, and 93 km (58 mi) west of the regional capital Gdańsk.

For details of the history of the region, see History of Pomerania.

The village has a population of 82.

References

Coordinates: 54°7′48″N 17°16′2″E / 54.13000°N 17.26722°E / 54.13000; 17.26722

Emperor Wu of Han

Emperor Wu of Han (30 June 156 BC – 29 March 87 BC), born Liu Che, courtesy name Tong, was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of China, ruling from 141–87 BC.

Emperor Wu's reign lasted 54 years — a record that was not broken until the reign of the Kangxi Emperor more than 1,800 years later, although he has remained the longest reigning Emperor of Han ethnicity. His reign resulted in vast territorial expansion, development of a strong and centralized state resulting from his governmental re-organization, including his promotion of Confucian doctrines. In the field of historical social and cultural studies, Emperor Wu is known for his religious innovations and patronage of the poetic and musical arts, including development of the imperial Music Bureau into a prestigious entity. It was also during his reign that cultural contact with western Eurasia was greatly increased, directly or indirectly. Many new crops and other items were introduced to China during his reign.

As a military campaigner, Emperor Wu led Han China through its greatest expansion — at its height, the Empire's borders spanned from modern Kyrgyzstan in the west, to Korea in the east, and to northern Vietnam in the south. Emperor Wu successfully repelled the nomadic Xiongnu from systematically raiding northern China, and dispatched his envoy Zhang Qian in 139 BC to seek an alliance with the Yuezhi of modern Uzbekistan. This resulted in further missions to Central Asia. Although historical records do not describe him to be aware of Buddhism, emphasizing rather his interest in shamanism, the cultural exchanges that occurred as a consequence of these embassies suggest that he received Buddhist statues from Central Asia, as depicted in the murals found in the Mogao Caves.