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The Blossoms of Morality intended for the amusement and instruction of young ladies and gentlemen by the editor of The looking-glass for the mind ; with forty-seven cuts ; designed and engraved by I. Bewick.; 4th edition, 1806; Printed for J. Harris in London. As the subtitle proclaims, this book originally published in the...
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This volume is a rare edition in Dutch of the greatest of the anatomical ‘flap’ books. The work features three full-page plates with dozens of detailed anatomical illustrations superimposed so that lifting the layers shows the anatomy as it would appear during dissection. Although flaps had been used in printing before, Remmelin was the...
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And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee; And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of...
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The Baby’s own Aesop: being the fables condensed in rhyme with portable morals pictorially pointed by Walter Crane; 1908; F. Warne, New York. Walter Crane’s beautifully illustrated version of Aesop’s fables, shortened and put into limericks for the younger reader and first published in 1887. Aesop’s Fables or the Aesopica is a collection of...
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Film using stop animation shows the character “Tommy Telephone” (the AT&T advertising “spokescreature” at the time) making a telephone by assembling 433 separate parts. From the Prelinger Archive. Download from Internet Archive Note this film is in the public domain in the US, but may not be in other jurisdictions. Please check its status...
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Journal of the conversations of Lord Byron noted during a residence with his lordship at Pisa, in the years 1821 and 1822 by Thomas Medwin; 1824; Henry Colburn, London. On 17th May 1824, a month after Lord Byron died, his memoirs were burnt in the upstairs drawing room of a house on Albemarle Street,...
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Today marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner, one of the most influential and controversial composers ever to have lived. With his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk (“total work of art”) – by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts – he revolutionised opera and gave birth...
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Selected illustrations from the German architect and engineer Georg Andreas Böckler’s Architectura Curiosa Nova (1664). The book is mostly concerned with the theory of hydrodyanmics, water pump systems and different designs for water fountains, but also contains this series of elaborate geometrical pleasure garden designs. It’s not entirely clear whether they are projected plans...
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Selected plates from How I killed the tiger; being an account of my encounter with a royal Bengal tiger, with an appendix containing some general information about India (1902), a small book by Lieutenant Colonel Frank Sheffield detailing his close brush with death by tiger. As the author explains in his introduction: My main...
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How I killed the tiger being an account of my encounter with a royal Bengal tiger, with an appendix containing some general information about India; 1902; Smith’s Print.and Pub. Agency, London. How I killed the tiger; being an account of my encounter with a royal Bengal tiger, with an appendix containing some general information...
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A Zampogna is an Italian bagpipe, and a Ciaramella is a small woodwind that plays the higher melody line over the Zampogna’s drone. This combination is often used for traditional Christmas music, as in this circa 1920 recording of a “Novena Di Natale” by uncredited performers. MP3 Download Internet Archive Link HELP TO KEEP...
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A film by Hans A. Spanuth for the series “Spanuth’s Original Vod-A-Vil Movies” filmed in Chicago. It shows the daring exploits of the the Kawana Trio, described in the opening credits as “Artistic Foot Jugglers”. The film is housed at Open Images, originally from the Library of Congress. HELP TO KEEP US AFLOAT The...
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A selection of folios from an illuminated manuscript of 17th century Ethiopia, produced during the cultural boom, especially in painting, brought about by the establishment of a permanent court at Gondar by the Solomonic emperor Fasilädäs (who reigned 1632-67). The nearly 50 full-page illuminations of this particular manuscript tell the story of the Archangel...
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Bible symbols, designed and arranged to stimulate a greater interest in the study of the Bible by both young and old. The choicest passages of God’s word put in the fascinating garb of pictures by Frank Beard and others. Text prepared and arranged by Martha Van Marter; 1908; Hertel, Jenkins Co., Chicago. As the...
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A selection from a collection of early 20th century lantern slides held at the Fylkesarkivet of Sogn og Fjordane, a county in the west of Norway. The slides are produced by at least two British photographers – professional photographer Samuel J. Beckett and amateur photographer P. Heywood Hadfield, who was a ship’s surgeon employed...
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Not the same Vanity Fair of current fame, this was a version published by The Commonwealth Publishing Company of New York City, incorporated in February 1902 but which went bankrupt in April 1904. “Vanity Fair” has been the title for at least 5 magazines, and as a phrase became popular through John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s...
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At the time of his death in 2001 at the age of 57, the German writer W.G. Sebald was cited by many critics as a future winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. It was his book The Rings of Saturn, written in 1995 (translated into English in 1998), which went a long way...
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A compilation of Jelly Roll Morton’s classic Chicago “Red Hot Peppers” sessions, recorded in 1926-27. Jelly Roll Morton – ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer from New Orleans, Louisiana – started out his musical career playing brothels as a teenager, then toured the American South as part of a minstrel show, before...
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Selected images from a massive late 19th century tome entitled simply Magic, subtitled Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, including Trick Photography, compiled and edited by Albert A. Hopkins. The book takes a thorough tour through the popular magic tricks and illusions of the day, including along the way many delightfully surreal diagrams and illustrations,...
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Magic: stage illusions and scientific diversions, including trick photography, compiled and edited by Albert A. Hopkins, with an introduction by Henry Ridgely Evans; 1897; Low, London. A massive late 19th century book on magic and stage illusions including a section on trick photography. The book includes more than 400 (mostly) magnificently surreal illustrations and...
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The Accidents of Youth, consisting of short histories, calculated to improve the moral conduct of children, and warn them of the many dangers to which they are exposed : illustrated by engravings; 1819; Jas. W. and Chas. Adlard, London. Through a series of short stories and wonderful engravings, this book is aimed at keeping...
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Illustrations from a 16th century manuscript detailing the phenomenon of Nuremberg’s Schembart Carnival, (literally “bearded-mask” carnival). Beginning in 1449, the event was popular throughout the 15th century but was ended in 1539 due to the complaints of an influential preacher named Osiander who objected to his effigy being paraded on a float, depicting him...
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The Hasheesh Eater: being passages from the life of a Pythagorean, by Fitz Hugh Ludlow; 1857; Harper & Bros., New York. The Hasheesh Eater: being passages from the life of a Pythagorean is an autobiographical book by the American novelist and journalist Fitz Hugh Ludlow in which he describes his altered states of consciousness...
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“Have you ever thought about what hands can do?”, asks the opening of this short WWII propaganda film from the U.S. Army Pictorial Service. The film is from the Prelinger Archive, housed at the Internet Archive. Note this film is in the public domain in the US, but may not be in other jurisdictions....
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Appointed as the expedition’s official botanist, a 25 year old Joseph Banks travelled on Captain Cook’s first great voyage to the South Pacific in 1768. After landing on the island of Tahiti, Banks was soon to become an invaluable member of the crew by virtue of the friendly relations he struck up with the...
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A selection of woodcuts from a book entitled The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents, published in 1658. Most of this three-volume compilation is comprised of the zoological works of the English clergyman Edward Topsell who published several books on religion and other matters during his lifetime. A whole host of animals are represented...
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A series of recordings made by James Mooney in 1894 of different Native American Ghost Dance songs. According to the Library Of Congress notes that accompany the recordings, the performances are probably by Mooney himself and not by Native Americans. Mooney was an ethnographer and self-taught expert on American tribes through his own studies...
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A series of woodcuts from an 18th century chapbook entitled The World Turned Upside Down or The Folly of Man, Exemplified in Twelve Comical Relations upon Uncommon Subjects. As well as the amusing woodcuts showing various reversals (many revolving around the inversion of animal and human relations) there is also included a poem on...
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Explanatory notes of a pack of Cavalier playing cards, temp. Charles II. forming a complete political satire of the commonwealth, by Edmund Goldsmid; 1886; E. & G. Goldsmid, Edinburgh. A facsimile with explanations of a “very curious Pack of Cards” which used to belong to Lord Nelson and date from around 1660. The cards...
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Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892) is widely recognized as the last great master of Ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock printing (literally meaning “pictures of the floating world”). He is additionally regarded as one of the form’s greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of Edo period Japan, and the first years...
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Illustrations from Vaught’s Practical Character Reader, a book on phrenology by L. A. Vaught published in 1902. As he confidently states in his Preface: The purpose of this book is to acquaint all with the elements of human nature and enable them to read these elements in all men, women and children in all...
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Vaught’s Practical Character Reader, by L. A. Vaught; 1902; L. A. Vaught, Chicago. A book on phrenology by L. A. Vaught published in 1902, jam-packed with strange theory and a whole host of strange illustrations. As he confidently states in his Preface: The purpose of this book is to acquaint all with the elements...
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The following images are all taken from Tradition und Naturbeobachtung in den Illustrationen Medizinischer Handschriften und Frühdrucke vornehmlich des 15. Jahrhunderts (1907) by Karl Sudhoff – a book on the topic of medical illustrations in manuscripts and early printed books (primarily) of the 15th century. Included amongst the depictions are a few of the...
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On the Writing of the Insane, with illustrations, by G. Mackenzie Bacon, M.D.; 1870; John Churchill and Sons, London. A book of observations on the peculiarities of writing styles as shown by asylum patients. G. Mackenzie Bacon was a medical superintendant at Cambridgshire County Asylum (now Fulbourn Hospital) located near Cambridge, England. As well...
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These two images are from the book On the Writing of the Insane (1870) by G. Mackenzie Bacon, medical superintendant at an asylum (now Fulbourn Hospital) located near Cambridge, England. The pictures are the product of a “respectable artisan of considerable intelligence was sent to the Cambridgeshire Asylum after being nearly three years...
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George Méliès’ short retelling of the temptation of Saint Anthony (La tentation de Saint-Antoine), with the temptations taking the form of the unexpected and persistent appearance of various scantily clad women. Although not as technically epic as his earlier masterpieces it nonetheless marks an advance in terms of subject matter, being one of the...
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A compilation of double exposures, an accidental phenomenon no longer possible with digital cameras. As well as the unintentional displayed here (though the first picture is debatable, and the saxophonist too), it was a common practise to use double exposures to create what became known as “Spirit Photographs”. One of the most prolific of...
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A selection of illustrations from Variae Architecturae Formae, a series of architectural studies after the works of Joanne Vredemanni Vriesio, also known in Dutch as Hans Vredeman de Vries (1527–c.1607). De Vries was a Dutch Renaissance architect, painter, and engineer. Studying Vitruvius and Sebastiano Serlio, (translated by his teacher Pieter Coecke van Aelst), he...
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Endless Amusement, a collection of nearly 400 entertaining experiments in various branches of science, including acoustics, arithmetic, chemistry, electricity, hydraulics, hydrostatics, magnetism, mechanics, optics, wonders of the air pump, all the popular tricks and changes of the cards, &c., &c., &c.; 1820; Thorp and Burch, and Thomas Boys, London. As it states on the...
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Adele Keshelak sings three pairs of traditional Rusyn folk songs from Slovakia, recorded in New York on January 30th 1930: Track 1 – “Rusadelina Fialocka” (“Forget me Not”) and “D’Irava Mi Stricha Na Stajni” (“My Pet Horse Was Stolen”); Track 2 – “Na Dolini, V Hustom L’ Is’ I Na Dubi” (“In The Valley,...
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A small selection of hearts through the history of art. Various sources, see link below each image Underlying Work: See source | Digital Copy: See source Download: Right click on image or see source for higher res versions and to finish off, a map of love, a land called Tendre: HELP TO KEEP US...
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Devises et Emblemes Anciennes & Modernes, Tirees de Plus Celebres Auteurs; 1699; Kroniger & Göbel, Augspurg. Beautiful 17th century book showing various emblems with mottos described in German, Latin, French and Italian, and the emblems themselves described only in German. Some highlights include a floating stone, a lion being suspended over an empty throne,...
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Selected images from a 1608 edition of Livre de Pourtraiture by Jehan Cousin the Younger (ca. 1522–1595), son of of the famous painter and sculptor Jehan Cousin the Elder (ca. 1490-ca. 1560) who was often compared to his contemporary, Albrecht Dürer. Just before his death, Jehan the Elder published his noted work Livre de...
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Four horse drawn fire engines roar up a snow-covered Newark, New Jersey, street while spectators watch from the sidelines. Until the mid-19th century most fire engines were maneuvered by men, but the introduction of horse-drawn fire engines considerably improved the response time to incidents. The first self-propelled steam engine was built in New York...
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Croatian Tales of Long Ago, by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, translated by F. S. Copeland; 1922; Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York. A seminal collection of short stories by the acclaimed children’s author Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić originally published in 1916 in Zagreb by the Matica Hrvatska publishing house. The collection is considered her masterpiece and it features...
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A series of elaborate “skeleton leaf” arrangements, from the photographic studios of John P. Soule which stood on Washington Street in Boston from 1861 to 1882. As well as producing many pictures of Boston’s buildings, notable events (such as the 1869 National Peace Jubilee and the great fire of 1872), carte-de-visite portraits etc., Soule...
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Passing English of the Victorian era, a dictionary of heterodox English, slang and phrase, by J. Redding Ware; 1909; Routledge, London. Passing English of the Victorian era, a dictionary of heterodox English, slang and phrase is complied and written by James Redding Ware, the pseudonym of Andrew Forrester the British writer who created one...
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A recording from 1905 of one of the 19th century’s most famous opera singers Adelina Patti singing “The Last Rose of Summer“, a song based on the poem by Irish poet Thomas Moore. Although the sound quality isn’t great and her voice is past its prime (she was 62 yrs old), through the dust...
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A Japanese woodcut by Kamekichi Tsunajima titled “Ryūkō eigo zukushi”, or “A Fashionable Melange of English Words”. The print shows images of animals, activities and objects each with their Japanese and English names. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) some spelling mistakes have given rise to some interesting new activities such as “Refreshiug” and “Cuting Rice”,...
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Pictorial Atlas to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Thirty-six plates, containing 225 illustrations from works of ancient art, with descriptive text, and an epitome of the contents of each book, for the use of schools and students of literature and art, by R. Engelmann and W.C.F. Anderson; 1892; H. Grevel, London. This Pictorial Atlas is...
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Over the top 1950s “Populuxe” advertisement for General Motors, set at their 1956 Motors Motorama. A woman falls asleep and dreams of a glorious future of perfect products, including a variety of shiny futuristic dream cars and Frigidaire’s fully automated “Kitchen of the Future.” The star of the story is played by dancer and...
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Illustrations from (to give its full title) The six voyages of John Baptista Tavernier, a noble man of France now living, through Turky into Persia and the East-Indies, finished in the year 1670 giving an account of the state of those countries : illustrated with divers sculptures ; together with a new relation of...
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The six voyages of John Baptista Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, translated by John Phillips; R.L. and M.P., London. To give it its full title – The six voyages of John Baptista Tavernier, a noble man of France now living, through Turky into Persia and the East-Indies, finished in the year 1670 giving an account of...
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17th January 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Konstantin Stanislavski, a Russian theatre director whose theories on acting revolutionised the art. His techniques revolved around getting actors to draw believable emotions to their performances. The method that was originally created and used by Stanislavski from 1911 to 1916 was based on...
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The contents of Box 14 from the Manly Palmer Hall Collection of Alchemical Manuscripts, a huge collection of esoteric works amassed by Manly Palmer Hall, a Canadian-born author and mystic, perhaps most famous for his The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928). Most of the material in the collection was acquired from Sotheby’s auctioneers...
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Richard Isaac Banks (1878–1915), who changed his name to Billy Williams after leaving his birthplace of Australia, was one of the most recorded popular entertainers of his time. Born in Melbourne, Williams tried a number of jobs before embarking on an entertainment career which led him to come to England in 1899. He became...
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Making a Living (1914) marked Charlie Chaplin’s first ever film appearance. In the film he plays a lady-charming swindler, Edgar English, who runs afoul of the Keystone Kops. Chaplin strongly disliked the picture, but one review picked him out as “a comedian of the first water.” Although his character wears a large moustache, top...
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The Nine Lives of a Cat – a Tale of Wonder, by Charles Bennett; 1860; Griffith and Farran, London. Beautifully illustrated (though perhaps not so well rhymed!) tale of the cat with nine lives. From the preface: This tale of wonder is told for children; with which view, it has been carefully designed and...
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A selection of images from the Library of Congress found via the always excellent Ptak Science Books blog. The daguerreotype, invented by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre in 1837, was the first commercially successful photographic process and was popular throughout the mid-19th century. Daguerreotype portraits were made by the model posing (often with head fixed in place...
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The First New Year, by George Warwick; 1885; C. T. Bainbridge’s sons, New York. A short little poem meditating on the inevitable end of all things and the power of new beginnings. Little is known about the author George Warwick although he appears to also be the author of this poem on the theme...
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Frank C. Stanley performing Auld Lang Syne, the poem written by the Scotsman Robert Burns which is traditionally sung to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight. The song’s Scots title may be translated into English literally as “old long since”, or more idiomatically, “long long ago”, “days gone...
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“Beautiful and appropriate” engravings for Oliver Golsmith’s History of the Earth and Animated Nature (1825). Oliver Goldsmith was (1730-1774) was an Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright and poet, who is best known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield, his pastoral poem The Deserted Village, and his plays The Good-Natur’d Man and She Stoops to Conquer....
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To celebrate the festive season we have put together, just for you our beloved readers, a little Christmas digest including all our festive content from this year and last. Enjoy! Diary Days from Christmas Past With December 25th fast approaching we have put together a little collection of entries for Christmas Day from an...
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A Christmas Sermon, by Robert Louis Stevenson; 1900; C. Scribner’s Sons, New York. A Christmas Sermon by Robert Louis Stevenson written while he convalesced from a lung ailment at Lake Sarnac in the winter of 1887. In the short text he meditates on the questions of death, morality and man’s main task in life...
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In 1897, Dr. Philip O’Hanlon, a coroner’s assistant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, was asked a question by his then eight-year-old daughter, Virginia, which many a parent has been asked before: whether Santa Claus really exists. O’Hanlon deferred. He suggested Virginia wrote asking the question to one of New York’s most prominent newspapers at...
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Sir Isaac Newton’s Daniel and the Apocalypse with an introductory study of the nature and the cause of unbelief, of miracles and prophecy, by Sir William Whitla; 1922; Murray, London. Best known for his advancements in scientific thought Sir Isaac Newton was also big into his apocalyptic prophecy. Largely unknown and unpublished documents, evidently...
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Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is a 1964 science fiction film that regularly appears on lists of the worst films ever made. It is regularly featured in the “bottom 100″ list on the Internet Movie Database, and was featured in an episode of the 1986 syndicated series, the Canned Film Festival. It was directed...
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With December 25th fast approaching we have put together a little collection of entries for Christmas Day from an eclectic mix of different diaries spanning five centuries, from 1599 to 1918. Amid famed diarists such as the wife-beating Samuel Pepys, the distinctly non-festive John Adams, and the rhapsodic Thoreau, there are a sprinkling of...
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Contrary to what many believe, Santa Claus as we know him today – sleigh riding, gift-giving, rotund and white bearded with his distinctive red suit trimmed with white fur – was not the creation of the Coca Cola Company. Although their Christmas advertising campaigns of the 1930s and 40s were key to popularising the...
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To celebrate the most auspicious occasion of it being the 12th day of the 12th month of the 12th year, i.e. 12/12/12, we’ve put together a little collection of twelve pictures of people in groups of twelve. Through a mix of paintings and photographs we travel all over the world, from Central Java in...
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Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost, directed by Walter R. Booth, is the oldest known film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novel A Christmas Carol – featuring the miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge confronted by Marley’s ghost and given by visions of Christmas Past, Present and Future. The film, “although somewhat flat and stage-bound to modern eyes,” according...
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Illustrations from a chapbook entitled The Surprising Life and most Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of the City of York, Mariner (ca.1800) as featured in John Ashton’s Chap-books of the Eighteenth Century (1882). Housed at: Internet Archive | From: University of Toronto Libraries Found via: Erin H Underlying Work: PD Worldwide | Digital Copy:...
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The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described by John of Patmos in his Book of Revelations, the last book of the New Testament. The chapter tells of a “‘book’, or ‘scroll’, in God’s right hand that is sealed with seven seals”. The Lamb of God, or Lion of Judah, (Jesus Christ) opens the...
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