Tag: History

Tours of Old York #4: An Artist Visits…

And now for a slightly different tour of old York – York as seen by a visiting artist.

In 1952 the curator of York Art Gallery – Hans Hess – approached L. S. Lowry to paint a scene of York for the annual Evelyn Award. For this Lowry would be awarded the princely sum of £50 or – in 2025 money – around £1,250.

In the end, Lowery was to paint three images of York; two he offered to the art gallery to select from – ‘Clifford’s Tower, York‘ and ‘A View of York (from Tang Hall Bridge)‘ – and a third – ‘Wilson’s Terrace‘ – that he sold on to a private collector.

Of the two images offered to York Art Gallery, they selected ‘Clifford’s Tower, York‘ which, as of writing, can currently be seen in one of the upper galleries.

‘Clifford’s Tower, York’

‘Clifford’s Tower, York’, Laurence Stephen Lowry.
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York Minster from Lop Lane

“A Scene in York” – York Minster from Lop Lane by the Reverend Calvert Jones (Getty Object 85.XM.150.1)

Whilst poking around on Getty.edu’s art search site I managed to stumble on this fascinating but sadly poor photograph of what is now the junction between Museum Street, St Leonard’s Place, Duncombe Place, and Blake Street. The photos current location can be seen on the StreetView below.

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The Worst-selling Microsoft Software Product of All Time: OS/2 for the Mach 20

Raymond Chen at ‘The Old New Thing’ has a lovely tale about what could be Microsoft’s worst selling product ever – OS/2 for the Mach 20.


According to that person’s memory (which given the amount time that has elapsed, means that we should basically be saying “according to legend” at this point), a total of eleven copies of “OS/2 for Mach 20” were ever sold, and eight of them were returned.

Raymond Chen, The Old New Thing.

I’ve seen a few expansion cards as part of choosing images for ‘Retro Computer Adverts‘, but the Mach 10| 20 is not one I’ve yet stumbled across. And as for ads for ‘OS/2 for Mach 20’? Not a sausage!