Aspiring to a Higher Plane

In 1884 Edwin Abbott Abbott published Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, perhaps the first ever book that could be described as "mathematical fiction".

A Pamphlet on Verdi (1901)

A small pamphlet (in the series "Little journeys to the homes of great musicians") on the life of the Italian composer Guiseppe Verdi, beginning with a fictionalised account of his childhood meeting with his early patron Signior Barezzi and his eldes…

Free Knitting Patterns: Travel Accessories, Reversible Shawls, Lace Cardigans

Harry Clarke’s Illustrations for Poe’s *Tales of Mystery and Imagination* (1919)

Of all the illustrators, perhaps it is Clarke who has come closest to evoking the delirious claustrophobia and frightening inventiveness of “Poe-land”.

Working Class History

A Dangerous Man in the Pantheon

This October marks 300 years since the birth of French Enlightenment thinker Denis Diderot. Although perhaps best known for co-founding the Encylopédie, Philipp Blom argues for the importance of Diderot's philosophical writings and how they offer a p…

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Victorian Occultism and the Art of Synesthesia

Grounded in the theory that ideas, emotions, and even events, can manifest as visible auras, Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater’s Thought-Forms (1901) is an odd and intriguing work.

Working Class History

The Hall of Stars, a Design for The Magic Flute – Product

Magnificent set design for "The Hall of Stars" in the Palace of the Queen of the Night, from Act 1, Scene 6 of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute.

Picturing Don Quixote

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, author of one of the best-loved and most frequently illustrated books in the history of literature — Don Quixote.

Nehemiah Grew’s *Anatomy of Plants* (1680)

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1904)

Deriving its title from the word for "ghost story" in Japanese this is a book by scholar and translator Lafcadio Hearn in which are compiled an array of ghost stories hailing from Japan.

On Benjamin’s Public (Oeuvre)

On the run from the Nazis in 1940, the philosopher, literary critic and essayist Walter Benjamin took his own life in the Spanish border town of Portbou.

Stanislav Petrov - Wikipedia

Lost in Translation: Proust and Scott Moncrieff

Scott Moncrieff's English translation of Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu is widely hailed as a masterpiece in its own right. His rendering of the title as Remembrance of Things Past is not, however, considered a high point. William C.

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H. G. Wells and the Uncertainties of Progress

In addition to the numerous pioneering works of science fiction by which he made his name, H. G. Wells also published a steady stream of non-fiction meditations, mainly focused on themes salient to his stories: the effects of technology, human folly,…

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Victorian Occultism and the Art of Synesthesia

Grounded in the theory that ideas, emotions, and even events, can manifest as visible auras, Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater’s Thought-Forms (1901) is an odd and intriguing work.

The Polyglot of Bologna

Michael Erard takes a look at The Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti, a book exploring the extraordinary talent of the 19th century Italian cardinal who was reported to be able to speak over seventy languages.

That to Study Philosophy is to Learn to Die (1580)

Working Class History

The Hasheesh Eater (1857)

An autobiographical book by the American novelist and journalist Fitz Hugh Ludlow in which he describes his altered states of consciousness and philosophical flights of fancy while using a cannabis extract.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s Adventures in Scandinavia

Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, the book produced after the radical philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft took her infant daughter in 1795 on an expedition through Scandinavia in search of stolen treasure.

Black on Black

Should we consider black a colour, the absence of colour, or a suspension of vision produced by a deprivation of light? Beginning with Robert Fludd's attempt to picture nothingness, Eugene Thacker reflects* on some of the ways in which blackness has …

The Poet, the Physician and the Birth of the Modern Vampire

From that famed night of ghost-stories in a Lake Geneva villa in 1816, as well as Frankenstein's monster, there arose that other great figure of 19th-century gothic fiction - the vampire - a creation of Lord Byron's personal physician John Polidori.

Kodak No.1 Circular Snapshots

Robert Greene, the First Bohemian

Known for his debauched lifestyle, his flirtations with criminality, and the sheer volume of his output, the Elizabethan writer Robert Greene was a fascinating figure.

50 Jahre "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" - Wie The Temptations den Pop veränderten

Er ist ein musikalischer Monolith, der bis heute die Tanzböden der Welt prägt. Doch mit "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" schufen The Temptations mehr als nur einen Klassiker. Sie brachten auch afroamerikanische Sozialkritik unter die Leute.

Time and Place: Eric Ravilious (1903-1942)

In many countries around the world the works of Eric Ravilious have come out of copyright this year – he died when his aircraft went missing off Iceland while he was making war paintings.

The Sketchbooks of Jacques-Louis David

Selections from "Album 11", a sketchbook belonging to the French neoclassical painter and revolutionary Jacques-Louis David.

Black on Black

Should we consider black a colour, the absence of colour, or a suspension of vision produced by a deprivation of light? Beginning with Robert Fludd's attempt to picture nothingness, Eugene Thacker reflects* on some of the ways in which blackness has …

W. E. B. Du Bois’ Hand-Drawn Infographics of African-American Life (1900)

Visually dazzling set of hand-drawn charts created by Du Bois, condensing an enormous amount of data on African-American life into aesthetically daring and easily digestible visualisations.

Packet Radio Van - Wikipedia

The Krakatoa Sunsets

When a volcano erupted on a small island in Indonesia in 1883, the evening skies of the world glowed for months with strange colours.

Apollinaire’s Calligrammes (1918)

A book of poetry by French writer Guillaume Apollinaire, noted for its use of "caligrams" in which typeface and arrangement of words on the page add to the meaning of the compositions.

Prints — The Public Domain Review

Premium prints using pigment-based archival inks (Giclee process) on high grade heavyweight art paper. Available as unframed or framed and ready to hang.

The Science of Life and Death in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Professor Sharon Ruston surveys the scientific background to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, considering contemporary investigations into resuscitation, galvanism, and the possibility of states between life and death.

Günther Bantzer – SPD Geschichtswerkstatt

Tonmitschnitte Auschwitz-Prozess

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A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden (1899)

A classic from Walter Crane, considered to be the most prolific and influential children’s book creator of his generation and one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif of 19th century England.

Napoleon’s “Englich” Lessons

While imprisoned on St Helena, Napoleon started learning English. One resident of the island called his English “the oddest in the world.”

Photograph Collection of a 19th-Century Sexologist

Photographs from the personal collection of Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902), a German-Austrian psychiatrist, early sexologist, and author of Psychopathia Sexualis, first published in 1886.