Who |
When |
What |
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| Sadako Sasaki Japan |
1943 - 1955 | The Atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima Aug 6, 1945 when she was 2 years old.
At 11, Sadako was the fastest runner in her class. She collapsed in a race and was diagnosed with leukaemia, a cancer of the blood. She tried to fold a thousand cranes hoping that her wish for world peace could be granted. By the time she died she had folded 644 cranes. Her friends folded the remaining cranes for her funeral. Afterwards they formed a club and began raising money for a monument. The Peace monument was unveiled in Hiroshima Park 1958. Every year people from all over the world send paper cranes to the Park on August 6th --- the Peace Day.
For more information click here |
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| Friedrich Froebel Germany |
1782 - 1852 | introduced paper folding into Kindergarten movement | ||||||||||
| Leo Tolstoy Russia |
1828 - 1910 | He was Leo Nikolaevich, Count Tolstoy, the author of "War and Peace". His origami experience was mentioned by A B Goldenweiser in "Talks with Tolstoy", published by Horizon Press, New York
His famous essay "What is art?" in 1896 mentioned how the folded cockerels could flap their wings when the tails were pulled. |
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| Margaret Campbell ... |
18.. - 19.. | After learning much paperfoldings while travelling in Japan and China etc she settled down in South Africa. She complied her paperfolding collections for her grandchildren. Her book "Paper Toy Making" was published in England in 1937. | ||||||||||
| Roy Campbell South Africa |
1901 - 1957 | He was a poet born in Durban, the son of Margaret Campbell. In the preface he wrote for his mother's book he mentioned the fun of paper folding. He recognised his creative potential the very first time when the paper bird flapped its wings in his hand. | ||||||||||
| Lewis Carroll England |
1832 - 1898 | He was an Oxford mathematician and writer for the children. In 1889 he folded a fishing boat (probably the Chinese Junk) for the grandchildren of Queen Victoria. Later he learned how to fold paper pistols and taught them too. | ||||||||||
| Charles Sydney Gibbes England |
1914 | He was a Cambridge graduate and the tutor of the children of Czar Nicholas II. By using paperfolding he succeeded in winning the confidence of his withdrawn pupil - the Czarevitch (Eric Kenneway - A paper folder in St Petersburg.) | ||||||||||
| Harry Houdini | 1874 - 1926 | He was the famous escape artist born in Budapest, Hungary and emigrated to USA. His original name was Erik Weisz. One of his tricks on stage was to transform a piece of paper into a flapping bird. He was known to be the author of "Houdini's Paper Magic". | ||||||||||
| Maying Soong | 1948 | published the book -- The Art of Chinese Paperfolding for Young and Old ..... (Do you know anything about her?) | ||||||||||
| Miguel de Unamuno Spain |
1864 - 1936 | writer & philosopher invented many animal constructions and wrote the book - Amor y Pedagogia in 1902, a humorous essay on origami. | ||||||||||
| Dr. Vincente Solorzano Sagredo Spain/ Argentina |
.... | As a child, his mother taught him some simple folds. About 10 years old he learned from a book how to fold a frog and a whale. Paperfolding books were hard to find. Born in Spain, he studied medicine in Valladolid. As a physician he visited Europe and America. He settled in Argentina in 1912 and practised as a physician in Buenos Aires. With further studies he became a dentist from 1921. In South America, he enjoyed demonstrating paperfolding to his friends. On their request, he wrote down folding instructions of his creations. Later they encouraged him to publish. He named paperfolding as "papiroflexia". His publications includes:
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| Vernon Holden Queensland, Australia |
Born in 1936 | As a teacher in Bundaberg, he was inspired by Robert Harbin's TV origami presentation in 1971. He was educated in Kelvin Grove Teachers' Training College in Brisbane. He taught origami to selected students and often used folded models as rewards of merit.
He mainly learned from books and ordered many from Origami USA. In 1972 he became a member of BOS and enjoyed entering models in competitions. He also exhibited his work at the Bundaberg Show. He has been interested in creating geometric shapes but his first creation was a belt buckle. The Origami Master he admired most was Neil Elias. |
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| Arthur Stone England |
....-1939 | used origami in mathematical recreation and invented flexagons | ||||||||||
| Ismael Adolfo Cerceda Argentina |
.... | Besides creating a large collection of paperfoldings he was a knife thrower who used paper folding to calm his nerves. He also studied hypnotism and loved painting. | ||||||||||
| Robert Harbin (Ned Williams) South Africa |
1909-1978 | First President of British Origami Society, He brought the western world into greater appreciation of the art. He was also a great magician. He published a book titled "Paper Magic" in 1956. | ||||||||||
| Gershon Legman France |
1917-1999 | He was a free-lance researcher and writer. He was the appointed Writer in Residence at the University of California from 1964 to 1965
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| Lillian Oppenheimer USA |
1899 - 1992 | From 1950 to 1960 she started the origami movement in USA.
From 1951 she corresponded with Robert Harbin, Gershon Legman, Ligia Montoya, and Akira Yoshizawa.
In 1958 she opened the origami centre with 25 people in the class and published a newsletter " The Origamian ".
In 1959 she founded the Origami centre of America.
She died at the age of 93
Her publications included:- |
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| Toshie Takahama Japan |
1908 - 1999 |
Countries visited on goodwill missions:- USA in 1965, UK in 1974, Maxico in 1978, China in 1979, Taiwan in 1980, Italy in 1981, France in 1981, Singapore in 1982, USA in 1984. She was highly achieved in creating Japanese paper dolls. She died at the age of 91
She contributed to the Origamian and published many books including:- |
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| Frieda Lourie USA |
19.. - 1959 | Frieda was Jewish and was born in Austria. She had Austrian
qualifications in occupational therapy. She used paperfolding
as a therapy among mental patients in Belle Vue Hospital,
New York. At the hospital she met Robert Neale
who was a chaplain there.
She was a close friend of Lillian Oppenheimer and they worked together to learn about and teach origami. They both spent considerable time visiting groups of old people, the Red Cross and Boy and Girl Scouts. Their efforts eventually led to the formation of the Origami Center in New York in October 1958. Frieda's work is described in Hokubei Shimpo, an English-language newspaper for Japanese, published in New York. |
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| Eric Kenneway London |
1930 - 19.. | He became an art teacher in London schools on return from military service in the Royal Artillery in North Africa. While finding ways to help his pupil in crafts he discovered the "Art of Origami" by Sam Randlett and "Paper Magic " by Robert Harbin. Eric was an active member of the Origami Portfolio Society in UK and later in the British Origami Society. He was helpful in translating Japanese articles on origami. He was very skilful in folding portraits including Napoleon, Shakespeare and Confucius.
His publications included "Simple origami" published by David in 1970, "Origami in action" and "Complete Origami" by St. Martin's Griffin in 1987. |
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| Paul Krueger Kiel, Wisconsin, USA |
1935 - 1999 | He was the first regional group coordinator for OUSA and was also responsible for producing the handbook for regional groups.
Since 1986, he had been a regular contributor to FOLD --an origami amateur publication and became the organizing editor for a few years. His contribution included many thoughtful articles and poetry. He taught English as an adjunct professor at a local college. Paul combined his interest in origami with church sermons. He was a lay minister who used origami to teach and inspire children. He would fold 30-40 models and hand them to all the children so they would have something tangible to hold on to. He was always eager to teach or learn a model since he bought an origami book in early 1980s. Paul was also known for writing several books, including a recent one of money folds. |
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| Victor Frenkil Baltimore, USA |
1921 - 1999 | As a builder in Baltimore, he was well known for folding money into letters and quacking birds. His building projects included bridges, piers, theatres, restaurants and factories. From a former G.I. he learned the dollar bill bow tie with the framed picture of George Washington. Subsequently, he created a system of folding alphabets from money. In 1958 he was appointed as the honorary member of Origami Centre of USA.
His book - Folding Money Vol. 2 was published by Magic Inc. in Chicago |
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| Archives etc. | .... | For further research, there are some known resource worth to be considered:-
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| Exhibitions | 2001 | The American Immigration Law Center will have an exhibit of "Fly to Freedom: The Art of the Golden Venture Refugees" from March 23 - May 25, 2001 at 918 F St, NW, Washington, DC. The travelling exhibit was organized by the Museum of Chinese in the Americas in New York City. For more information: 202-742-5600 or click here | ||||||||||
| Francis McNaul Sunnyvale, California, USA |
1914 - 1972 | Father McNaul was a priest in the Episcopal Church. He made his living as a cost estimator for Applied Technology. He was an active paperfolder in the 1960's and a frequent contributor to the Origamian - former newsletter of OrigamiUSA. He devoted much of his time helping the Origami Centre to translate many Spanish origami works into English.
In 1973 his origami collection was donated to Stanford University which can be found in the East Asian Collection in the Hoover Institution. Everything is catalogued and divided into indexed folders by his friend, Mrs.Yoshiko Decker. This collection provides a resource to research origami in the 1950s and 1960s when modern origami was blossoming. The collection consists of 120 books, 15 binders of diagrams/ correspondence and folded models. |
Hope we can appreciate more through the understanding of history.
Mr. David Lister (UK)
Mr. Thoki Yenn (Denmark)
Mr. Mark Kennedy (USA)
Mr. Joel Stern (USA)
Ms. Florence Temko(USA)
| Origami & Mental Health Therapy Web page George Ho |