Moments in Time 1989/1990.

Scenes from the fall of the Wall.

More : https://www.wir-waren-so-frei.de/index.php/Splash/Show/lang/en_US




Photos of the Kings of Africa.

'Between the years of 1988 and 1991, French photographer Daniel Laine spent about 12 months on the African continent tracking down and photographing figures of royalty, and leaders of kingdoms. During this time he managed to photograph 70 monarchs and descendants of the great African dynasties with his work on this series.'




Venera: The Soviet Exploration of Venus.




Watch-Paper Prints.

'Originally designed as a simple protective insert, watch-papers came to be used as an advertising medium for the watchmakers in the second half of the 18th century and another means by which print artists could ply their trade. These types of 'professional' or conservative watch-papers form the majority of the genre, but a popular 'amateur' variety also emerged that were valued as keepsakes.'




One Broadway.

'You never really think of Broadway having a beginning or ending. It’s the oldest north-south thoroughfare in NYC, and is derived from a Native American trail, the Wickquasgeck, which once carved through the swamps and rocks of the island. The avenue passes through so many important hubs of New York life that the idea of it actually terminating somewhere seems almost unnatural.'




All-American Space Fleet - 1950s.

Nostalgia.




American Girl, 1922.

‘Five years after this photo was taken, Kay was dead of pneumonia at age 37.’




William Gedney Photographs.

'From the mid 1950s through the early 1980s, William Gedney (1932-1989) photographed throughout the United States, in India, and in Europe. From street scenes outside his Brooklyn apartment to the daily chores of unemployed coal miners, from the indolent lifestyle of hippies in Haight-Ashbury to the sacred rituals of Hindu worshippers, Gedney recorded the lives of others with remarkable clarity and poignancy. These photographs, along with his notebooks and writings, illuminate the vision of an intensely private man who, as a writer and photographer, revealed the lives of others with striking sensitivity.'




Japanese Prints and the World of Go.




Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art (1909).

'This is a review of the folk-lore of animals, mostly of a legendary or purely symbolic nature, particularly as appearing in English Heraldry. It's a gold-mine of lore about such fantastic beasts as the hydra, the basilisk, the phoenix, as well as angels, dragons, mermaids, sphynxes and so on.'




Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic (1900).

'This includes detailed treatment of the central triad of Brahmâ, Vishnu and Shiva, along with dozens of other Gods and Goddesses, nature spirits, half-divine heros of the epics, and so on. Wilkins covers the dozen of so principal avatars of Vishu, including Krishna and (suprisingly) Buddha, and prophecies of the mysterious Kalki avatar, yet to come. The dozens of line drawings are good reference art for each of the major deities.'




Jane Johnson.

'Among the online collections of Indiana University I found the Jane Johnson Manuscript Nursery Library, a set of cards made by Jane Johnson in Lincolnshire for the instruction of her son, George William Johnson. Since he went on to be High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1784, all the careful work she put in to teaching him obviously paid off. '




Pogue States: A Celtocentric World Map.




Brunei Money.



Astro Pics.


Dunhuang Star Atlas.


Whirlpool Galaxy Deep Field.


Carina Nebula Panorama.


Andromeda Galaxy.



Querying the Hive Mind.


'Seeking first rate caper flicks or thrillers.'


'I'm looking for examples of insanely overbuilt, reasonably-priced consumer goods: "Cheap, bombproof...XXXXX"'.


'What are the simple concepts that have most helped you understand the world?'




Milwaukee Neighborhoods 1885-1992.




Train Stations.




Your Monkey Called.

A touching haiku.




History of English.

Mr. Pikai Chiang's Biography.

'Shanghai, China was the birthplace of my dad in 1958. When he was young, he enjoyed playing soccer, ping-pong, and track. He also enjoyed building model airplanes, model boats, and hanging out with friends. Dad had a bird for a while and some crickets when he was young. His childhood was very interesting...'

More biographies of parents and grandparents by children : http://www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us/middle/teachers/directory/edelson/elderTea/

'Although my grandpa doesn‘t have a great relationship with his parents or his sister, he did eat lunch and talk with them every so often. ': http://www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us/middle/teachers/directory/edelson/elderTea/2007/aruotolo/index.htm

'He is as wise as an owl/He is as informative as an encyclopedia/He hates President Bush/He thinks he is foul': http://www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us/middle/teachers/directory/edelson/elderTea/2007/plevenson/index.htm

'Little did she know that they were just math colleagues, so as she rushed into the Melville class, and passed his chair she stated, "I didn't know you were an English major." Looking up at my grandma with his beautiful blue eyes he told her, "I'm not. I'm a math graduate student." The rest is history. ': http://www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us/middle/teachers/directory/edelson/elderTea/2007/dlamachia/index.htm

'All the sisters in my grandmother family have the word,” Zehra” meaning flower in the Arabic language. ': http://www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us/middle/teachers/directory/edelson/elderTea/2007/mhussain/index.htm




History of London Tube Maps.




Viewing Japanese Prints: Ukiyo-e.

... are among the most widely known and admired arts of the Edo period. With the rise of the merchant class during the 17th century, there followed a demand for images of contemporary urban life in a new style reflecting the lives of the commoners.'




Antique Typewriters.

'Comprised of typewriters from the very beginning of the typewriter industry (1880s & 1890s), it is the
largest of its kind in Canada. The collection contains many rare and historically important typewriters,
showing the remarkable diversity and beauty of the world's first typing machines.'




Dan's Topical Stamps.

Postage stamps on such diverse subjects as detective fiction, Scandinavian flags, the Bayeux Tapestry, South Dakota, the Twelve Days of Christmas, etc.




Vietnamese Propaganda Posters.




65 Years of Photography in Mexico.




Remnants of Kleindeutschland, Lower East Side, NYC.

'At the turn of the century, there were approximately 50,000 German immigrants living in the area surrounding of Tompkins Square Park, which was then known as Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany (now referred to as Alphabet City). German schools, libraries, beer halls and shooting clubs served the cultural needs of a community permanently displaced from their homeland.'

Pretty much wiped out in one night in 1904 by the General Slocum Tragedy.




The Abandoned Boyce Thompson Institute, NYC.

'I recently posted about scouting Alder Manor, a dilapidated yet beautiful abandoned mansion in Yonkers. The manor was owned by William Boyce Thompson, an extremely rich copper magnate in the early 1900’s. This past winter, I had the opportunity to check out the former Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, a beautiful brick structure located across the street from the manor, and in far, far worse condition.'




Travels of a Boy Reporter.

Track Tintin's travels around the world (and the Moon).




Claremont Fashion Plates.

19th century women's fashion, including SWIMSUITS.

"There are three bathing dresses in black and white with no models. The outfit on top is horizontal. It consists of a dark gray short dress with a sailor collar, short sleeves, and a belt, as well as matching knee length cropped pants. White bands decorate at the sleeves, the center front on each side of the buttons, and the hem of the dress, and the hem of the pants as well..."




Naxi Manuscripts of Yunnan.

'Selections from the Naxi Manuscript Collection features ceremonial writings of the Naxi people of Yunnan Province, China. The Library of Congress’s Naxi collection is the largest outside of China and is considered one of the finest in the world.The Naxi language is the only pictographic writing system still in use today. '




The Saxon Mirror, or Medieval German Law.

Manuscript images.

'The Sachsenspiegel (lit. Saxon Mirror) is the original document of German jurisprudence in which the customary laws of Saxony, previously transmitted through an oral tradition, were given permanence and stability in written form.'




1950s-1970s Advertising Images.




Regional World Cities.

'This world map slices up the globe into two egg-shaped pieces and, for some reason, a kidney-shaped one. It purports to show the world’s three panregions (*), and the world cities with which they interact. In all, there are nine of these “regional world cities”: two “panregional centres”, three “major regional centres” and four “minor regional centres”.'



Astro Pics.


Atlantis and Hubble Side by Side.


Unusual Dusty Galaxy NGC 7049.


The Colliding Spiral Galaxies of Arp 274.


Moon Rays over Thurso Castle.


East of Antares.




Memories of Y2K, from Y2K.

MEMORIESSSSSSS.... (I was at work).



Querying the Hive Mind.


'I need a new "big think" book! I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, and I loved his other books as well. I've read everything Jared Diamond has published (Collapse, Guns, Germs & Steel, The Third Chimpanzee etc.) I like books that stretch your brain and reveal the hidden factors in life, the world and society.'


'What single ingredient can make my cooking more exciting or interesting?'


'You know the feeling you get when you succeed at something you initially thought you weren't capable of? I want to feel that way more often. What things, big or small, do you do in your life which give you the joy of proving your inner pessimist wrong?'

Asian Historical Architecture.

'Welcome to www.orientalarchitecture.com, a photographic survey of Asia's architectural heritage. Here you can view over 14,600 photos of 743 sites in twenty countries, with background information and virtual tours. This website is a collection of photos from many different contributors.'




Intimate Paris at a Glance.




The William Blake Archive.

"what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language".

More : http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/blake/ - "I do not behold the outward creation... it is a hindrance and not action."



An Artist's Guide to Human Types.

"If I needed to draw someone from [a] specific part of the world, what would I need to know about his or her physical characteristics?"

A Lebanese artist's drawings of different peoples.

Asian : http://www.cedarseed.com/fire/humantypes1.html

Caucasian : http://www.cedarseed.com/fire/humantypes2.html

African/Pacific : http://www.cedarseed.com/fire/humantypes3.html




Best Wardrobe of All Time?

'My nomination is American dancer Ruth St Denis, whose fantastic costumes feature in page after page of pictures at NYPL.'




The Visual Front: Posters of the Spanish Civil War.

'Propaganda posters constitute one of the most poignant documents that remain from the Spanish Civil War. As the remarks of numerous eyewitnesses demonstrate, the posters provided an essential part of the visual landscape in which individuals living the tragedy of the war went about their daily business of survival. '

The complete collection:
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/visfront/vizindex.html




Classic Covers of Penguin Science Fiction Books.




Lush Life.

'Though written in the 1930s, it was not until Nat "King" Cole recorded it in 1949 that it became well known: Lush Life is Billy Strayhorn's signature song (well, one of his signature songs). A haunting ballad with surprisingly dark lyrics, its definitive treatment is probably the famous 1963 recording by Johnny Hartman & John Coltrane (Hartman sang it again for TV in 1983), but it has been done countless times by many artists: by pianists Phineas Newborn, Jr. and Oscar Peterson; by saxophonists Joe Henderson and Stan Getz; even by Linda Ronstadt and Queen Latifah. '

Links to YouTube versions.




Martini Advertising Posters.




Irish Railway Posters.




Fukuoka Simplicity.

'These are Edo period woodblock illustrations (from the late 1700s to early 1800s). Of that much I am certain. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine.'




Durer's 'Rhinoceros'.



Astro Pics.


Jupiter Eclipsing Ganymede.


Starry Night in Brazil.


Castle and Full Moon.



Querying the Hive Mind.


'Is it possible for something to live inside a coconut? This one I have has started making chirps, clicks and almost bird-like chirps!'


'Best way to learn Spanish (and other languages) online, for free?'


'I'm having a really hard time dealing with news of humans' brutality to other humans. When I read the news (esp. that coming out of the African continent) , my immediate response is that, as a species, we simply don't deserve to exist. I need some recommendations for literature, films, poetry, that addresses these issues and comes out optimistic. No Cormac McCarthy thanks.'


'Please introduce me to your field of study (or work) in a way that one can experience'.


'How much tap-temperature water (say 15 C) would you need to add to 1 litre of (boiling) water to make a mass of water 80 C?'




Surrealist Art.




The Barren Lands.

'This site documents two exploratory surveys of the Barren Lands region west of Hudson Bay, in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan and the area now known as Nunavut. Drawing on materials from the J.B. Tyrrell, James Tyrrell and related collections at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, it includes over 5,000 images from original field notebooks, correspondence, photographs, maps and published reports.'

The Empire That Was Russia.

'The photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) offer a vivid portrait of a lost world--the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I and the coming revolution. His subjects ranged from the medieval churches and monasteries of old Russia, to the railroads and factories of an emerging industrial power, to the daily life and work of Russia's diverse population. '

'In the early 1900s Prokudin-Gorskii formulated an ambitious plan for a photographic survey of the Russian Empire that won the support of Tsar Nicholas II. Between 1909-1912, and again in 1915, he completed surveys of eleven regions, traveling in a specially equipped railroad car provided by the Ministry of Transportation....'

The Russian Empire's ethnic diversity : http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/ethnic.html

Architecture : http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/architecture.html




The Oriental Carpet in Early Renaissance Paintings.

'The Carpet Index contains over 180 examples of European paintings from the years 1250 through 1550, compiled into three chronological sets (with the primary focus on carpets in paintings from the century spanning 1420 through 1520). '




Old Photos of Japan.

Japan 1860s-1930s.




Good Girl Art Paperbacks.

'The GGA designation seems to have originated with comic books and is usually applied to attractive sexy young women who are either in peril or are perpetrating the peril like my favorite gun moll on the right. So it is often politically incorrect but can also be empowering when at the right end of a gun. There are two Galleries where you will see some of my favorite GGA covers from early Paperbacks and Pulps. '




Jonas Hallgrimsson: Selected Poetry and Prose.

'This Web site is intended to make available, through interactive technology, a wide range of materials that will enable interested persons to familiarize themselves with the work of the Icelandic poet and natural scientist Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807-1845) and to have at their fingertips resources contributing to an understanding and appreciation of that work. Jónas is generally acknowledged to be the most important and influential Icelandic poet of modern times. In addition he has a secure place in the annals of Icelandic science and of his country's cultural and political history.'

Interactive map of Iceland with sites connected to Jonas Hallgrimsson's poems : http://www.library.wisc.edu/etext/jonas/JonasTour.html




East German Architecture.

'The architecture of the former DDR is woefully under-appreciated and undocumented in today's world of pre-fabricated "historicist" trends and aura of political correctness.'

'While other Modernist and mid-Century buildings have received some kind of ersatz recognition, the architectural legacy of East Germany has been relegated to the dustbin of anachronism and political guilt. It is considered distastefully out of date and "ugly."'

'That kind of attitude is what caused Penn Station to fall to only cite one infamous example.'




Russian Professor's Prediction for the Breakup of the US.




Blue-Green across Cultures.

'The English language makes a distinction between blue and green but some languages do not. Of these, quite a number, mostly in Africa, do not distinguish blue from black either, whilst there are a handful of languages that do not distinguish blue from black but have a separate term for green[1]. Also, some languages treat light (often greenish) blue and dark blue as separate colors, rather than different variations of blue, while English does not.'

Aoi and midori.




The History of the Peace (CND) Symbol.

'One of the most widely known symbols in the world, in Britain it is recognised as standing for nuclear disarmament —and in particular as the logo of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). In the United States and much of the rest of the world it is known more broadly as the peace symbol. It was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a professional designer and artist and a graduate of the Royal College of Arts. '




A Book of Hours.

A lovely medieval prayer book.




Serbian Manuscripts.

'The Digital National Library of Serbia has more than five hundred cyrillic manuscripts available online¶. (in english) The images above were selected from: National library of Serbia's collection of cyrillic manuscripts (RS); Jernej Kopitar's collection of slavic manuscripts (Kop) and the Chester Beatty collection (Dublin) of cyrillic manuscripts (RU).'




Crazy Embroidery.

'The many samplers which the V & A has in its collection are remarkable not just for the amazing needle skillz of the very young makers, but the fact that it looks as if these girls had to embroider absolutely everything...'




Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy.




The Nature of Utamaro.

'The Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge has a flash presentation of three elegant multi-colour woodblock Ukiyo-e books by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) known as 'The Bird Book', 'The Shell Book' and 'The Insect Book'. Just exquisite. The site was developed to compliment an exhibition --- Kachōfūgetsu - the natural world in Japanese prints --- running in the Shiba Gallery until May 17.'




The Rat Temple, Karnimata, Bikaner, India.
Where rats are worshipped as divine messengers.




'Campbell's Soup Cans'.




The Lewis Carroll Scrapbook.

'The Lewis Carroll Scrapbook at the Library of Congress is an original scrapbook that was kept by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Better known as Lewis Carroll, the Victorian-era children’s author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), Dodgson was a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Oxford. The scrapbook contains approximately 130 items, including newspaper clippings, photographs, and a limited number of manuscript materials, collected between 1855-72.'



Astro Pics.

The Whale Galaxy.

The Eskimo Nebula.

Omega Centauri.

Titan Beyond the Rings.