As the 19th century came to a close and the 20th century picked up speed, people were absolutely held in thrall by the paranormal. Psychics and mediums sprang up everywhere as part of a movement called Spiritualism, and they promised to put people in touch with their departed lov … | Continue reading
When you next leave the house, turn right. Then turn left. Then right again, followed by another left. And by Jove, I think you’ve got it! Do this until you’re blocked by an obstacle, whether that’s a dead-end, a river, or a sheer drop. Congratulations, you’ve just completed your … | Continue reading
Here’s the myth: alcoholic brooding genius Jackson Pollock assesses a virgin canvas as it lays prone on the ground. Then he flings, hurls, splashes, and drips paint all over it, creating a vigorous new language of art – the drip technique. Life Magazine swooned, “Is he the greate … | Continue reading
Today we were stumbled upon the excellent OldieCaravan.de again, a virtual museum of vintage caravan ephemera. The website is entirely in German and we can’t understand a word of it, but the brochures; the photographs, the diagrams, the colour palette, the typography; it all spea … | Continue reading
1. The White House’s Forgotten Vinyl Collection The White House built a vinyl record collection during the administrations of Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter of more than 2,000 donated albums. A time capsule of 1970s trends, it ranges from Pat Boone, Barry Manilow and John Denv … | Continue reading
Sex sells – and the message couldn’t have been any clearer when it came to advertising in post-revolutionary Mexican. Images of beautiful people served a multitude of purposes: a nationalistic one to quite blatantly plug the new regime, that of a new bountiful and fertile country … | Continue reading
When we think of Parisian café culture, we might think of the “intello-chic” literary crowd that congregated at the Café de Flore with Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre in the 1950s, or the glamorous flappers that held court on Boulevard Montparnasse during the Années Folle … | Continue reading
One of the most popular questions in ethics is what would happen in a real Lord of the Flies in which a group of children were left to fend for themselves. In 2007, one reality TV show decided to find out, letting 40 kids loose on a movie ranch set with no adult supervision —… | Continue reading
In 1912, Aida Overton Walker stood at the top of the stairs at the Victoria Theater about to make her entrance as Salomé in the one-act tragedy by Oscar Wilde. By then, the Salomé craze was mostly over, but the role still had plenty of allure. At a time when women had few rights … | Continue reading
1. The deliciously eccentric Carmen Tórtola Valencia A Spanish early modern dancer, choreographer, costume designer, and painter, Tórtola Valencia generally performed barefoot and was widely considered controversial in conservative Spain for her eccentric style, Leftist beliefs … | Continue reading
At less than a fifth of a square mile, The Vatican City is officially the world’s tiniest country. As the seat of the Catholic church, it’s also a cultural institution and a major museum that was welcoming nearly 7 million visitors a year before the pandemic. Unbeknownst to most … | Continue reading
At less than a fifth of a square mile, The Vatican City is officially the world’s tiniest country. As the seat of the Catholic church, it’s also a cultural institution and a major museum that was welcoming nearly 7 million visitors a year before the pandemic. Unbeknownst to most … | Continue reading
Unless you are Taiwanese, you probably don’t know that Taiwan is inhabited by indigenous Pacific Islanders. Currently, there are 16 recognized tribes on the island, comprising 2.4% of Taiwan’s population of 23 million people, comparable to the native population in the United Stat … | Continue reading
Full disclosure, we never gave the Periodic Table much thought – it remains in our memory as a clunky patchwork of confusing titled squares taped to the back of our school chemistry folder that our teachers would occasionally torture us with for a pop quiz on the elements. Walter … | Continue reading
There are so many grand Gilded Age homes in New York’s Hudson River Valley, it led one 19th century wit to comment that ‘one couldn’t throw a stone without hitting a millionaire’s mansion’. Walk along the always fascinating Croton Aqueduct Trail and you can catch glimpses of thes … | Continue reading
1. Incredibly Detailed Illustrations of our favourite small Parisian museums & archives By artist Christelle Tea wonderful account to follow. 2. These Amazing Quilts Artist Jeffrey Sincich makes quilts inspired by signage, shop fronts, ephemera. Found via Present & Correct. 3. Tr … | Continue reading
French fashion designers have long been at the forefront of avant-garde style and Paris has long been considered the birth city of fashion – the ultimate fountain of sophistication, glamorous muses and endless inspiration. But let’s turn back the clocks and leave the capital for … | Continue reading
Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century and well into the beginning of the next, it’s easy to track our fascination with young women attempting to figure out life – they are witty, tenacious, and often keenly perceptive of the world in which they exist and their place … | Continue reading
A diminutive Black woman hung upside down from a trapeze as two men pushed and shoved a 200 pound cannon to the center of the circus ring. She grasped a chain on the cannon and hung it on a hook held between her teeth. At a signal, she was hoisted aloft. The audience watched with … | Continue reading
1. Easter Egg Museum, Ukraine The museum is not only shaped like an egg (14 m in height and 10 m in diameter), but parts of the exterior and inside of the dome are painted to resemble a pysanka (the Polish/Ukrainian tradition of easter eggs). This is the only museum in the world … | Continue reading
You’re looking at a very rare portrait from 1650 depicting a Black woman and a White woman, both appearing to hold equal status, some 183 years before the abolition of slavery act. Curiously, rather than commenting on the debate in 17th century Britain via the uncommon pairing, t … | Continue reading
Combine our love of treehouses with our love of teeny tiny stuff and you’ve got our undivided attention. Throughout winter, there’s been one Instagram account that’s had us hanging on its every post. For the past seven months, Catherine Lenoir, a miniature hobbyist and artist bas … | Continue reading
Just what the deuce do they mean with all their gadzooks and apoplexies, their barouches and barking irons? The language of the Regency – the period of time roughly earmarked as 1795 to 1820 in Britain when the reigning King George III was deemed unfit to rule and his son took ov … | Continue reading
Explore America’s small towns, and you might be lucky to stumble across a peculiarly shaped house that stands out from its surrounding neighbours by virtue of having eight facades. Back in the middle of the 19th century, there were once thousands of these ‘octagonal’ houses all o … | Continue reading
1. How hermits live in the Russian wilderness Escape is a series about individuals who have disassociated from society and live as hermits in the wilderness of Russia and Ukraine. By Danila Tkachenko, is a Russian visual artist, specializing in the field of documentary photograph … | Continue reading
In the 1920s and 1930s, matchboxes in Japan were a miniature billboard in the palm of your hand, promising a glamorous modern life of smoky bars, marcelled hair, and nude women entwined around giant goblets of wine. Produced with a traditional woodblock, the artwork showed influe … | Continue reading
We have all heard of Amelia Earhart, breaking records as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, but where did the inspiration for her aviation adventure come from? Two decades earlier, the lesser known but equally high-flying Harriet Quimby blazed the trail and proved … | Continue reading
Sarajevo might be quite unlike any other city in Europe. Nestled in a valley surrounded by the beautiful Dinaric Alps, it is a beguiling mix of old world cultures, where centuries of Ottoman Empire rule meet the grandeur and elegance of the Austro-Hungarian Hapsburgs. Wander thro … | Continue reading
Never was there a weapon of more romance than poison. From the tragic double-suicide of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, back to the death of Socrates and even the more recent murky business surrounding the death of several Russian defectors under Putin’s reign, poison has fascina … | Continue reading
1. Japan’s Tiny Police Boxes ‘Koban’ are small, architecturally diverse police stations (or ‘boxes’) scattered around Japan. Found on this Instagram account via Present & Correct. 2. The Heyday of Escolta Street, the oldest street in Manila One of Manila’s famous streets, the Esc … | Continue reading
In Paris, there’s no lack of private art collections that have been transformed into museums, and even after more than a decade of living in this city, we’re still discovering under-the-radar cultural gems. The Musée Cognacq-Jay might be relatively small compared to, say, the Mus … | Continue reading
No magazine has a cover style as distinctive, enduring and charming as that of The New Yorker. With its unmistakably unique title font and with almost a century’s commitment to using original artwork on its front cover in every weekly edition since 1925, it’s arguably the most in … | Continue reading
Vienna is rightly regarded as one of Europe’s most elegant capital cities, resplendent with Baroque architecture and built upon centuries of the Imperial grandeur and wealth of the Hapsburg Empire. A city where visitors can spend a weekend marvelling at the Lipizzaner horses perf … | Continue reading
If you’re ever really lost on a road trip across America, and I’m talking really lost (let’s say the battery on your smartphone just died along with that compass application you downloaded for situations just like this), perhaps you might be lucky enough to find yourself next to … | Continue reading
1. Croatian “Licitar” ornaments (biscuits made of sweet honey dough) From ‘Le Mode du Pain’, 1984, found on Print SF. More about Licitar on Wikipedia. 2. A Love letter from 1913 that opens up into an art gallery Alfred Joseph Frueh to Giuliette Fanciulli, found in the Smithsonian … | Continue reading
For the world’s billionaires — from Richard Branson to Bill Gates — owning an island is one of the most extravagant ways to flaunt your wealth. But while many envision a private oasis all to themselves, the so-called “King of Italy” bought his island to build the most exclusive, … | Continue reading
@lewismillerdesignSpring in New York City is the loveliest time of the year when the air smells fresh, rent gets more expensive, and already active New Yorkers become even more adventurous. We can thankfully spend this Spring (mostly) maskless, but keep in mind that you do have t … | Continue reading
Picture a night out in 1940s San Francisco. You’re in a glamorous nightclub with a floorshow. A sequined dancer does a pas de bourrée on her toes while her tuxedoed partner wows the crowd with multiple drop splits. Then a singer with a warm bluesy voice belts Some of These Days. … | Continue reading
Ever wonder where the non-human things go to die? Wisconsin’s Graveyard of Fun Welcome to the FAST Graveyard. Yes, you read that correctly, FAST as in Fiberglass Animal Shapes and Trademarks. FAST Fiberglass L.L.C. is located in Sparta, Wisconsin in the Upper Midwest and has been … | Continue reading
1. “Cushion” by Jeffrey Shaw 1969 The Cushion was one of many inflatable ‘event structures’ that were conceived of as provocative sculptural interventions within the everyday urban environment. Placed on a street in Amsterdam, where it blocked traffic, this gigantic, soft pillow … | Continue reading
In the comic strip Torchy Brown from Dixie to Harlem, a spunky Black teenager leaves her Mississippi home for the bright lights of Harlem. She’s glamorous, ambitious, clever, and so self-assured that when she sees a sign pointing one way for COLORED and another way for WHITE, her … | Continue reading
You can’t beat a bit of Fanny, especially in the kitchen. Overshadowed by modern day macho MasterChefs, Fanny Cradock paved the way as the first ever celebrity chef and remains one in a million, like a dish you can perfect just once and never recreate. Spicing up British TV from … | Continue reading
It started out simply enough. At the age of 17, the artist Sophie Calle dropped out of university where one of her professors was Jean Baudrillard – yes, the philosopher – and spent the next seven years travelling through the French mountains, then Crete, China, the United States … | Continue reading
1. When Architects design Dollhouses In 1983 Architecutral Design Magazine launched a competition to for architects to design a doll house. Found in a book and scanned by Present & Correct. 2. These virtual reconstructions of archaeological buildings Adam Nemeth has been working … | Continue reading
Before Polaroids and Kodak colour, before we could snap a selfie and pass it through a colour filter with a click of a button, there was Vivex. If you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone. The Vivex colour process was produced in just one British factory that shut down at the s … | Continue reading
It begins with the first sightings of cherry blossoms, those warm evenings that take you by surprise and before you know it, Spring is here. Paris is finally swinging open its doors, polishing its wine glasses and getting its groove back. As always, we’re here to accompany you w … | Continue reading
How might one celebrate International Women’s Day? Why not stick it to the patriarchy while simultaneously feasting on feminist chinaware. Ceramicist Pollyanna Johnson runs her cottage studio in the landscapes of Sussex, England, and claims the pastoral, rolling hills of her home … | Continue reading
1. The Home of architect Vittorio Garatti in Milano Designed in 1989. Found on Archilovers. Additional imagery by Federicotorra.com. 2. Italian Panoramic Trains in 1950-51 Renzo Zavanella designed the “Belvedere”, the “O.M. 990”. Found here. 3. This Space age Petrol Station in Uk … | Continue reading