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Bernd Brunner on the English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse and how his 1854 book The Aquarium, complete with spectacular illustrations and a dizzy dose of religious zeal, sparked a craze for the "ocean garden" that gripped Victorian Britain. …more
Expensive and laborious to produce, a single woodcut could be recycled to…more
The technique of intarsia — the fitting together of pieces of intricately…more
Characterised as manipulative, power-hungry, and even an alter rex, Henry VIII’s right-hand…more
Benjamin Breen on the remarkable story of George Psalmanazar, the mysterious Frenchman…more
Collection of allegorical maps (17th–19th century) charting that heady territory of love, courtship, and marriage.more
Wonderful examples of “fore-edge painting”, where an illustration or design appears on…more
Ghoulish array of shapeshifting monsters from Japanese folklore.more
A vision of the world hundred years in the future, in which societies have been transformed…more
Wirt Sikes, US consul to Cardiff from 1876 to 1883, describes the…more
Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, the…more
Illustrations from Pomona Italiana (1817-1839) by Giorgio Gallesio (1772-1839) — Italy’s first and most important works in the science of growing fruit.Read more
Images from Histoire Naturelles des Oiseaux de Paradis et Des Rolliers (1806), a pictorial work by Jaques Barraband (1767-1809) which showcases the biodiversity of birds-of-paradise.Read more
Short educational film on what can be seen in the night sky through a telescope, including…more
Curious and groundbreaking mix of documentary and silent horror cinema, written and…more
Miniaturised dancers give a history of dance from the stone-age to the…more
First known recording of the popular African American spiritual performed in 1909 for Victor Studios by…more
Early recording of the alma mater of Rutgers, The State University of…more
Rendition by the Trinity Choir of James Edmeston’s 1820 hymn “Savior, Breathe…more
