Charles Booth and Poverty Maps of London.

'Charles Booth's Inquiry into the Life and Labour of the People in London, undertaken between 1886 and 1903 was one of several surveys of working class life carried out in the 19th century. It is the only survey for which the original notes and data have survived and therefore provides a unique insight into the development of the philosophy and methodology of social investigation in the United Kingdom...'

Booth Poverty Map and Modern Map : http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl?sub=view_booth_and_barth&args=531000,180400,6,large,5



Hecho en Mexico: Black Velvet Art.

'Garish images of Elvis, voluptuous pin-up girls, jungle fantasies and religious scenes are common themes in black velvet paintings, a kitsch tradition that gained popularity from the 1950s to the 1970s. Frequently fluorescent and often seen as the ultimate in bad taste, these paintings, peddled at border crossings between the U.S. and Mexico, flea markets, garage sales and eBay are the focus of this group. This pool pays homage to the artists. '



French Postcards and Kitsch of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.



New England's Lost Ski Areas.

'Now celebrating the history of 588 lost ski areas in New England and 71 elsewhere! Over 9 years of service preserving the history of lost ski areas.'



Himalayan Illuminated Manuscripts and Calligraphy.

'Illuminated manuscripts: small images drawn or painted to decorate the pages of religious books.'



Medical Posters Gallery.

'The following medical posters represent a small fraction of the total number of posters designed over the past 30 years by artists in the NIH's Medical Arts and Photography Branch. '



Exploring 20th Century London.



Old Maps of Shanghai.

1855-1945.



Victorian Music Covers.

'It is with some surprise that I admit that I actually went through and looked at all 806 of the Victorian era sheet music covers in Reading University's Spellman Collection via the wonderful Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) Visual Arts University College, UK. The vast majority are described as 'humorous' and quite a few are really funny. '



Barcelona Photoset.



The Fugitive Beauties of Hexandria.

'Priscilla Susan Bury [née Faulkner or Falkner and often cited as 'Mrs Edward Bury'] (~1790s-1869) was a self-taught watercolour artist who sketched exotic plants from her father's greenhouses on their estate near Liverpool, England, where she grew up.'

'Encouraged by a local botanist, William Rowe, and enlisting the technical expertise of staff at the Liverpool Botanical Gardens to assist with the accompanying text, Bury set about preparing a book of fifty one 'portraits' (as she called them) of her favoured Hexandrian species. These are a Linnean class of plants having six stamens, including lilies, hippeastrums, crinums and pancratiums...'



The Antiquities of Wisconsin.

'The Antiquities of Wisconsin, Increase A. Lapham's most important published work, was the result of his interest in the Indian effigy mounds found on Wisconsin's Landscape. His research for the work was funded by the American Antiquarian Society and it was published in the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge series. Antiquities includes 92 pages of text, illustrated with 61 wood engravings, and 55 lithographed plates. '



19th and 20th Century Latin American Pamphlets.