The First Photographs of Korea: 1863.




Abandoned Hotels from Around the World.




Map of Manhattan in 1609.




Frida by Kahlo.

A life in self-portraits.




Centralia, Pennsylvania.

'Its population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 12 in 2005 and 9 in 2007, as a result of a 46-year-old mine fire burning beneath the borough. '




19th Century Children's Magazine Covers.




Pre-WW2 Latvian Posters.




Gig Posters and Artwork.



Astro Pics.


A Protected Night Sky over Flagstaff.


Comet Holmes' Coma Expands.


Above the Clouds.



Querying the Hive Mind.


'What do you wish you knew when you started working?'




Seeds and Weeds.

Botanical photography.




Hull Photoset.




Sheet Music Collection.

Gay Weddings: A Flickr Photostream.




The Smithsonian Institution on Flickr.




Colour Infrared X-Ray Photographs.




Chinese Paper Gods.

'The images in this collection were assembled by Anne S. Goodrich (1895–2005) in 1931, when as a Christian missionary in Peking she became interested in local folk religious practices. She studied the paper gods in this collection for much of her life. '




Chippewa Lake - Abandoned Amusement Park.




Vintage Radio Ads.




Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts at the Getty Museum.




Guide to Roadside Creatures.

I.e. cryptids or legendary/imaginary creatures - the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, the chupacabra, things like that.

'A fleeting peripheral shadow, a pale wobbling light in the woods, an unholy sound. Is it explainable by Science, or is it evidence of the existence of a mysterious creature...'




Airmarks: Roadsigns for Planes.

'in the late 1920s, early 1930s, before radio navigation was widely used, pilots of small planes were forced to use familiar landmarks on the ground as a way to find the runway they would hopefully land safely on. there was even a campaign started by the 99s (a women’s pilot group) in the early 1930s, the objective being to paint directions to the nearest airport on buildings and structures across the u.s., the result being thousands of enormous ‘road-signs’ for pilots scattered across the nation...'



Querying the Hive Mind.


'I want to regain my "hotness". But I have limited money and time. What will have the most impact in amping up the sexy quotient, and what else should I do?'


'What witty things can I write on co-workers cards?'


'Help me find real-world magic items.'


'How can I learn some basic electronics?'


'School me on the classics of classical music.'




Historical Book Arts.

'The digital collection is comprised of images of binding, printing, papermaking and illustration examples and techniques. Also included are examples from our medieval manuscript collection, 11th to the 14th century. '




Greenwich Park Photoset.




Index of English and Welsh Lunatic Asylums and Mental Hospitals.

Querying the Hive Mind.


'What rituals do you have in your profession or job?' (There's an interesting Deutsche Bank anecdote in the answers here).


'Why do some people wear shoes in the house?'


All you need to know to start a veggie garden.


How to go about being a phone sex operator.




Moldavia: sequestration of personal computers of 12 young people for posting critical comments online.




Brazil: The black president before Obama.

'The sweeping Obama phenomenon has caught Brazil, and it comes as no surprise in the country with the world's largest population of African descendants. Blogs are commenting on all things Obama, from his stand on ethanol to the ‘rumors‘ of his appraisal of Brazil's free software policies. An especially notable thread is the one reporting on the resurgence of a weirdly interesting 1928 Brazilian sci-fi novel — ‘The Black President' — that predicted a US election matching a black, a feminist, and a conservative candidate in the then remote year of 2228...'




China: A glimpse at Olympic garden sculptures.

London's Lost Rivers.

'The easiest pub quiz question in the world: name a river that flows through London. Answer: the Thames. A somewhat more difficult question: name another river that flows through London. A few might know of the river Lee (or Lea) that springs near Leagrave in Bedfordshire and joins the Thames at Leamouth in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. But how about: name a third river that flows through London? And a fourth, a fifth, a sixth?'




Early Real Estate Atlases of New York.

'Over 2,000 maps of New York City, including Manhattan and Brooklyn "fire insurance maps" from the 1850s-1860, showing streets, blocks, tax lots, natural and manmade features, and more. '




The Great British Venn Diagram.

'So I guess a lot of people are in some doubt as to what the difference is between England, Great Britain, the British Isles and the United Kingdom. Here I present a handy-dandy Venn diagram to explain this.'




The Daily Puppy.

'Your Daily Fix for Puppy Pictures'.




Dialou: Multi-Storied Defensive Village Houses in Kaiping, China.




Murals in San Francisco's Mission District.




Jazz Musician Photo Gallery.




Joan Miro: Aidez L'Espagne.

'In the late 1930’s painters, poets, writers and intellectuals in Europe and outside, and especially those of Spanish nationality, were almost all united in their condemnation of the Fascism of General Franco’s army, and of their attacks against Republican Spain. The Spanish Civil War was the cause ‘cause célebre’ inspiring some of the greatest artistic works of the era, including Picasso’s ‘Guernica’...'




Antebellum Architecture of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Old photographs from before the American Civil War.




The Mysterious World of Cosplay: Love is Everything.

The subculture of Japanese manga/anime fashion.




Secret Topsham, Devon.

'Topsham, Devon, is an atmospheric little town on the Exe Estuary, now a suburb of Exeter, that used to be a major port. Many aspects of its features and history are well-known but for a time I've been intending to compile some of the more obscure facts, mostly omitted from official guides, that I've encountered since living here. They may be of interest to visitors, and can be viewed in a circular walk that takes about an hour.'




American Public Health Posters.




Plains Indian Ledger Art.

'This genre, often called Ledger Art, represents a transitional form of Plains Indian artistry corresponding to the forced reduction of Plains tribes to government reservations, roughly between 1860 and 1900...
...Beginning in the early 1860s, Plains Indian men adapted their representational style of painting to paper in the form of accountants ledger books. Traditional paints and bone and stick brushes used to paint on hide gave way to new implements such as colored pencils, crayon, and occasionally water color paints. Plains artists acquired paper and new drawing materials in trade, or as booty after a military engagement, or from a raid...'

Querying the Hive Mind.


'What are some mindblowing scientific concepts (proven or hypothetical)?'


'Help me to discover jazz!'


'How can I cultivate low-maintenance friendships?'


'I'm interested in becoming more organized and consistent with my housework routine.'


'How do you learn to feel comfortable with yourself?'




China: Zeng Jinyan asks for harassment to stop.

From Wikipedia - 'Zeng Jinyan (... born October 9, 1983), is a Chinese blogger and human rights activist. The wife of AIDS and environmental activist Hu Jia, Zeng became famous for a blog she had maintained throughout the disappearance of her husband, which was believed to be the working of China's secret police.'




'Prison Diaries Show the Reality of Life Behind Bars in Jamaica'.

Bristol's Lost Pubs.




Giant Kite Festivals in Japan.




The Paris Exposition of 1900.

'In 1900, Goodyear traveled to the Paris Exposition with photographer Joseph Hawkes. They brought back numerous images from the exposition including street life, vistas, pavilions, statues, and other structures and decorative details.'




The Art of Tamara de Lempicka.




Emma Spaulding Bryant's Letters to Her Husband.

'Emma Spaulding Bryant wrote these ten letters to her husband, John Emory Bryant, in the summer of 1873. They recount Emma's activities during that summer when she and her daughter, Alice, were visiting relatives in Illinois and Ohio while her husband tended to his political affairs in Georgia.'

'In particular, the letters describe Emma's visits to a doctor in Cleveland for "uterine difficulties" that had been ailing her for some time. Although we do not have her husband's letters to her from this period, it appears that he accused her of adultery with the doctor and berated her for not being obedient to him. Many of Emma's letters from this period have markings in red pencil, presumably made by John to highlight the sections of her letters that he found suspicious. Emma's responses to John's accusations are indignant, and she rebuts each of his points eloquently and emphatically.'




American Steel and Coal Ads 1966.




Photograph of Migrating Stingrays.




Islamic Art.




The Museum of Electrotherapy.




Vintage Logos.

'Collection of vintage logos from a mid-70's edition of the book World of Logotypes.'




Sao Paulo Street Art.




Chislehurst Caves, beneath London.




New Zealand Railway Bridges.




British Insects.




Vintage Posters.




Vintage Cookbooks.