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CAPTURING THE MOMENTS OF A YEAR

Monday, January 3, 2022

In today’s newsletter, small-town America greets Afghan refugees; a race to document all varieties of a species … and the fresco artist who inspired Michelangelo.

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID GUTTENFELDER

By Debra Adams Simmons, HISTORY Executive Editor

A year following the beginning of a worldwide pandemic that took the world by storm, 2021 was filled with many moments of joy and happiness, along with moments of tragedy. In the United States, we saw the year begin with violence and hatred with the storming of the U.S. Capitol during the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

National Geographic Residents Tucker C. Toole and David M. Barreda produced a story that chronicled the most impactful moments of 2021, including the insurrection at the Capitol (pictured below, police standing guard). Photographer and Nat Geo Explorer David Guttenfelder captured one moment of hope (pictured above) when crowds in Minneapolis learned the verdict during the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd in 2020 by kneeling on his neck.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ADAM FERGUSON

Climate change had a major impact on the year as we saw historic levels of disaster across the globe. Wildfires were prominent in the U.S. and Europe, as flames blazed through the island of Evia in Greece (pictured below) after experiencing record heat waves. In the west, fires ravaged through the Lake Tahoe basin of California, burning through much of the residential, and tourism areas of the basin, forcing people to evacuate.

PHOTOGRAPH BY KONSTANTINOS TSAKALIDIS, BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

Families were finally able to honor their relatives as the skeletal remains of nine Lakota children who died in Pennsylvania more than a century ago were returned to South Dakota and laid to rest in their ancestral soil (pictured below by photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Daniella Zalcman). Families in Tulsa, Oklahoma, were able to honor their ancestors during the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre in May and June.

PHOTOGRAPH BY DANIELLA ZALCMAN

All year long, National Geographic photographers were on the scene and able to capture the moments that shaped our lives.

PHOTOGRAPH BY RUBEN SALGADO ESCUDERO

Finally, a moment of joy. Between waves of COVID-19 late last summer, outdoor revelers in Berlin (pictured above by Nat Geo Explorer Ruben Salgado Escudero), danced beneath smoke and lights at an open-air electronic music party. Someday, someway, again.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY TIM LAMAN, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

A quest: The December 2012 issue of National Geographic contained the story of two men setting out to document all 39 species of birds of paradise in the world. It took nine years, 18 expeditions, and 39,000 photographs, but they did it. Pictured above, Nat Geo Explorer Tim Laman captured a greater bird of paradise performing a courtship display on a treetop on Wokam Island, south of New Guinea. The image was recently featured in our popular Photo of the Day archival collection.

The National Geographic Society funded Tim Laman’s work. Learn more about the Society’s support of Explorers.

SEE VINTAGE PHOTOS

THE BIG TAKEAWAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY KHOLOOD EID

Small-town welcome: Some of the U.S. communities with the highest percentage of resettled refugees are smaller towns and cities in the mid-Atlantic states, the Midwest, and the South. The newcomers have reversed population declines and replenished shrinking labor pools. Religious traditions that encourage care for foreigners, as well as close-knit communities, have proved conducive to forming neighborly bonds. As one factory owner in Bowling Green, Kentucky told Nat Geo’s Nina Strochlic, resettlement works there “because we all know each other’s kids.” (Pictured above, a group of Afghan men arriving in Nashville in mid-November, greeted by a resettlement agency worker from Bowling Green.)

LAST GLIMPSE

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARTIN THOMAS PHOTOGRAPHY, ALAMY

Frescoes that influenced Michelangelo: The Renaissance master studied a painter whose stunning work on the walls of a chapel in Padua, Italy, created a sensation in the early 14th century (pictured above, today). Giotto di Bondone’s liberal use of blue—from lapis lazuli, which was costlier than gold—prompted visits from artists of his day and beyond. Hints of his work can be seen in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel masterpiece, completed two centuries later, Susan Van Allen writes.

Today's newsletter was curated and edited by David Beard, Monica Williams, and Jen Tse, with contributions from Tucker C. Toole. We’d love to hear from you at [email protected]. Happy trails!

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