Lena Gallery

Lena Ashwell

Lena Ashwell, OBE(28 September 187213 March 1957), British actress and actor-manager, known as the first to organize large-scale entertainment for troops at the front, which she did during World War I. She was also heavily involved in supporting the Three Arts Women's Employment Fund (also supported by Elizabeth Asquith) and helped to stage productions to raise funds. Date: 1904

© Mary Evans Picture Library

Discovery of the Adams mammoth, 1799

Discovery of a frozen mammoth in Siberia. A local chief spotted the creature, encased in transparent ice, on the banks of the river Lena in 1799. It took 5 years to thaw out, when it was set upon by native inhabitants, the tusks being sold off and the hide feasted upon by dogs and wolves. A naturalist, Michael Adams, came to hear to the mammoth, gathered up its remainders, repurchased the tusks and carried the whole thing to St. Petersburg(a distance of 7, 730 miles), where it was displayed in a museum. The creature became known as the Adams mammoth, after Michael Adams who recovered it. Date: 1799

© Mary Evans Picture Library

Adelaide Hall, London, 1989. Artist: Brian O'Connor

Hall Adelaide, London, 1989. Hall was an American born UK based jazz singer and entertainer whose career spanned more than 70 years. Hall entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2003 as the world's most enduring recording artist having released material over eight consecutive decades. She performed with major artists including Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway and Jools Holland, and recorded as a jazz singer with Duke Ellington

© Images of Jazz / Heritage-Images