Porte Dauphine's Art Nouveau Metro station designed by Hector Guimard © Tim Boric Paris is synonymous with the florid, tendril-like entrances that so eloquently frame one’s rabbit-hole descent into the belly of the Parisian metro, almost like a piece of theatre. The vibrant sage … | Continue reading
Sada Yacco, 1902. Courtesy of the Futaba Museum. At the height of japonisme, Sada Yacco appeared like a comet, touring America and Europe with the first kabuki theatre company ever seen in the West. She was the undisputed star of the 1900 Paris Exposition, drawing bigger crowds a … | Continue reading
1. A House Fit for Winnie the Pooh in the Original Hundred Acre WoodThe Bearbnb is situated in Ashdown Forest just south of London, made available to book on Airbnb as part of Disney’s 95th Anniversary celebrations of the loveable children’s character. 2. A Ca | Continue reading
© National Archaeological Museum AthensWhen German forces took Athens in April 1941, they expected to find thousands of centuries-old artifacts in the National Archaeological Museum, Greece’s largest museum. Instead, the neo-classical building was totally empty, besides the archa … | Continue reading
Artwork by the Women's Museum of CAYou probably heard about Mata Hari, the infamous courtesan and female spy who beguiled the men around her into allegedly betraying national secrets to Germany during WWI. She became an icon of feminine seduction, Greta Garbo played her on the s … | Continue reading
Centuries before Betty Friedan and the sexual revolution challenged social mores in the West, the women of the Ouled Nail in Algeria enjoyed the freedom to earn their own fortunes, choose lovers and engage in sexual relationships outside of marriage in a society that placed no sh … | Continue reading
Hotel Miramar / EsclasansThe Miramar Hotel is falling down. Its voluptuous domes and towering spires have crashed to the ground, its red roof tiles have been slipping and the classically-moulded plaster on its walls reduced to dust. This once awe-inspiring piece of architecture l … | Continue reading
1. Elevator Girls, by Miwa Yanagi, 1994–8For Japanese artist Miwa Yanagi, “elevator girls” (the hostesses employed to greet shoppers in department stores) have proved a potent means of exploring the role of women in Japanese society. Her first solo show featured various uniformed … | Continue reading
© Iceberg Vodka“Iceberg, Right Ahead!” It's hard not to think of the iconic line from the film Titanic as the boat we’re sailing in plows forward through the freezing North Atlantic Ocean, heading directly for a vast iceberg. But whilst most vessels try to avoid these frozen gian … | Continue reading
Derinkuyu, Turkey © MRO SaavedraHave you ever cleared out your basement or attic only to discover a box of childhood memorabilia or an awkward middle school yearbook you wish you could have forgotten for slightly longer? Well, there is one guy in Turkey who has us all beat. He di … | Continue reading
Clarice Cliff Art Deco sugar shakers sold at Andrew MuirWhen English ceramic artist Clarice Cliff first started designing pottery in the 1920s, her work was so out there, the styled garnered the name “Bizarre.” But the curious and colourful decorative pieces with abstract shapes … | Continue reading
Egypt's proposed 1000m skyscraper in the new capitalDid you hear? Egypt's capital is on the move. Though Cairo has been the official capital of Egypt for over a thousand years, a brand new metropolis – under construction since 2015 – is almost finished and ready to take centre st … | Continue reading
1. The Last Glimpses of California's Vanishing Hippie UtopiasHalf a century ago, a legion of idealists dropped out of society and went back to the land, creating a patchwork of utopian communes across Northern California. Here, the last of those rogue souls offer a glimpse of the … | Continue reading
© Luke J SpencerWander around Lower Manhattan you’ll find perhaps the most beautiful doors in the whole city. Curved and ornately designed in silver and bronze, they are adorned with panels depicting methods of transportation from the golden age of travel: luxury steamships, flee … | Continue reading
Debutante balls, or cotillions, are a centuries old tradition with roots in Europe as far back as the 1700s. The word “debutante” translates to female beginner in French, and refers to a young woman making her debut into polite society. The first of these lavish events was held b … | Continue reading
Exhibit at the Drive-Thru Museum, photo by Jennifer MasonButch Anthony’s cabinet of curiosities, aka the Museum of Wonder, isn’t easy to find. Beyond the help of Google Maps down these sparse backroads of rural Seale, Alabama, you have to rely on Anthony’s hand-drawn map. There’s … | Continue reading
© Alfred Eisenstaedt, Life Magazine, Time Inc, via Google Arts & CultureThe far end of New York’s Long Island is a place filled with secrets. Set against a beautiful backdrop of rocky Atlantic coastline, charming fishing towns, lighthouses and exclusive boatclubs, are hidden plac … | Continue reading
1. This little House with a Courtyard for Sale in ParisAsking 411K Euros. Found on Espaces Atypiques.2. London Streets In The 1980sFound on London Inheritance.3. Regency London's Forgotten Museums of PiccadillyThe interi | Continue reading
A 17th century poison cabinetThis is a different kind of story about Versailles; one that they only dared whisper about in the palace's gilded halls. It's the little-known story of a witch hunt that unfolded in secrecy within the French royal court, eclipsed in history by a more … | Continue reading
Photography by Xenia Ivanoff-ErbPhoto story by Xenia Ivanoff-ErbLet’s assume you’ve made it to the Namibian coastline, that you’re finding yourself somewhere above the Ugab and below the Kunene River and more importantly, that you have the stomach for this kind of adventure – whe … | Continue reading
© Nemo's GardenKevin Costner has entered the chat. Don't laugh. This is where we're going to have to grow vegetables if the whole planet keeps heating up. Someday, it might not be possible to grow food on the earth's surface anymore and wouldn't you rather know someone is busy fi … | Continue reading
The Planetary Court, seat of power for the Koreshan Unity, built in 1904In the once harsh and bug-infested swamplands of southwest Florida, lies the remains of a strange 19th century settlement. Founded by a charismatic leader who led his members into the quagmire to build a "New … | Continue reading
1. London's Prop Houses, photographed by Jasper FryJoseph Fry's exhibition is on show from Friday 27 August until Sunday 5 September (10 am-4 pm daily) at Act One Cinema, Acton High Street, London W3 6NA. Good to know: We'll be covering some of London's most atmos | Continue reading
All that remains of Downtown Thurmond © Luke J Spencer“Are you sure you want to get off here?,” asks the train conductor, and with good reason: for it is nighttime at Amtrak’s least used railway station. Indeed, Thurmond, West Virginia is so remote and rarely used, that it is a r … | Continue reading
2020 was a year of civil unrest and uncertainty, but it was also a catalyst for social justice, unity, and change. Many people saw an opportunity during the lockdowns to better themselves and their communities, both individually and collectively. One monumental example of this ty … | Continue reading
Picture what Hawaii might have looked like before it was colonised; a paradise in the tropics, frozen in time and largely untouched by the trappings of the 21st Century. Welcome to controversial island of Ni‘ihau, also known as "The Forbidden Isle", depending on who you speak to. … | Continue reading
Famous celebrities, historic English buildings and city skylines: What connects all of James Cook’s art pieces is they are made with an unexpected tool, an old or unwanted typewriter. From Essex, Cook first learned about typewriter art while researching Paul Smith, an American ar … | Continue reading
1. Before photography took over, French astronomer E.L. Trouvelot created breathtaking celestial artwork (1882)Discover the Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings on Public Domain Review. 2. Banksy’s Great British SpraycationThe artist spray paints England’s favorite summer holi | Continue reading
The PhotographRudolph Valentino & Natacha Rambova photographed outside the Plaza Athénée Hotel in Paris during their 1923 European honeymoon tour - Natacha is wearing a most fashionable automobile outfit by renowned Parisian couturier Paul Poiret.The StoryMany considered the Holl … | Continue reading
The Peppertree, vintage Asafo flag c. 1950s (source)To understand recent Ghanaian history, flags are not a bad place to start. Ghana was under colonial rule by Britain until 1957, but the Portuguese first arrived on the Gold Coast in the 15th century, starting a centuries-long tr … | Continue reading
Hi there! If you're not subscribed to our newsletter, you might have been wondering why we skipped a week of 13 Things recently. You’ll notice the website might be a little quieter than usual over the next few weeks as I dedicate the month of August to making a real crack at fini … | Continue reading
An 'Ice Man', delivering a 25lb block of ice in 1928, Houston, Texas. © Story Sloane Collection.In his autobiography Timebends, Arthur Miller recalls an occupation lost in time – that of the ice man, who wore "leather vests and a wet piece of sackcloth slung over the right should … | Continue reading
Rendering of Elagabalus, the roman CaesarHis reputation has suffered at the pens of historians for centuries – a suspected revisionist attempt to hide the fact that a powerful Roman Emperor was among the first persons in history to seek a sex reassignment surgery. Emperor Elagaba … | Continue reading
Former winners of the Hemingway Look-Alike contest, including Charlie Boice, right, evaluate 2019 entrants Thursday, July 18, 2019, at Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West, Fla. Florida Keys News BureauIf you’d gone for a walk around Key West in the 1930s, chances are you might have bump … | Continue reading
Every traveler has experienced it at some point: that sinking feeling of watching all the other suitcases reunited with their weary owners at baggage claim but not seeing your own slide down the conveyor belt. While you stand there forlornly, wondering where your luggage has gone … | Continue reading
1. Inside America's Largest Abandoned Mansion with over 110 roomshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkzAaYHfygo2. What the Leaning Tower of Pisa looks like InsideTotally empty! More found here. 3. Sylvia Plath’s recipe cards for SaleIncluding Fish Chowd | Continue reading
The infamous nightclub singer and vaudevillian, Velma Kelly, opens the musical Chicago in a sleek bob haircut, slinky black dress and all the glamour and sin of the swinging 1920s. She’s going to "paint the town", play fast and loose… and "rouge her knees and roll her stockings d … | Continue reading
Xalet del Catillaràs soon after completion. Image via https://hideback.tumblr.com/The world's greatest artists aren't supposed to have their work overlooked or unattributed, but it happens more than you might think. In museums, private collections, and public spaces, there is a m … | Continue reading
Freighthopping or trainhopping, the (usually illegal) act surreptitiously boarding and riding a freight railroad car became a common means of transportation following the American Civil War and continued to be widely used by those unable to afford other transportation, particular … | Continue reading
Death seemed to stalk Michael Zoettl from birth. His mother died when he was a child. He nearly drowned, then almost burned to death. When the Asiatic flu pandemic swept through Europe in 1889, killing 1.5 million worldwide, Michael fell ill and developed permanent heart palpitat … | Continue reading
1. East Brother Island, in the San Francisco Bay, is hiring an innkeeperIt’s been called a “dream job”, earning $140,000 a year — housing and health benefits included — to live on your own private island in the San Francisco Bay, one of the most expensive and spectacularly beauti … | Continue reading
Ed Blackwell, Dewey Redman, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden, at Prince Street May 1971 © Val WilmerOnce upon a time, before Manhattan priced out its young talent, you had to be an artist to live in SoHo. And in the late 1960s and 70s, a cultural phenomenon known as "Loft Jazz" cam … | Continue reading
The ship of Theseus, one of the oldest quandaries in Western philosophy, posits whether an object reconstructed with replaced parts can be considered the same as the original. But what if the ship is constructed with the same parts, in the exact same shipyard, only without the sh … | Continue reading
An etching by François Morellon de La Cave depicting the arrest of Adamites in a public square in Amsterdam (mid-18th century CE). From Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain).Today we're taking a brief look at some hippie heretics of yore known as the Adamites. The 2nd century Christi … | Continue reading
To the leaders of Communist East Germany, nothing was quite as dangerous and potentially subversive to their nation’s youth as Western rock and pop music. By 1965, Beatlemania may have been at its height with the band regularly attracting seventy million viewers on the Ed Sulliva … | Continue reading
Xalet del Catillaràs soon after completion. Image via https://hideback.tumblr.com/The world's greatest artists aren't supposed to have their work overlooked or unattributed, but it happens more than you might think. In museums, private collections, and public spaces, there is a m … | Continue reading
1. Once upon a time, you could ride a train right through the orange groves in Southern CaliforniaThe Super Chief was one of the named passenger trains and the flagship of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The streamliner claimed to be "The Train of the Stars" because of … | Continue reading
Artwork by Letters & LiquorThe poet E.E Cummings once wrote of a "famous doctor who inserts monkey glands in millionaires" and in a pre-code Hollywood musical starring the Marx Brothers, they sang the line, "If you're too old for dancing / Get yourself a monkey gland" performing … | Continue reading