1. Guy finds a box of 100-year-old Nudes in his wall"...searched the house more thoroughly and found a trove of century-old erotic photographs, about 120 in all. We've identified two studios involved in the making of these photos: The Aurora Studios in Boston, MA and Alta Studios … | Continue reading
Style and smiles all-round, saturated to the max; sexy undertones complete with sexist overtones and carefree capitalism – those iconic mid-century advertisements weren't just unique to the magazine pages of white America. In the 1950s and '60s, the notorious advertisers of Madis … | Continue reading
A century ago, the world was recovering from the deadliest pandemic in modern history. Post-Spanish Influenza and post-World War I, no other decade in history can match the change and innovation brought forth by the 1920s. Things were changing fast – new and impressive lines of c … | Continue reading
It's like Medieval Times, with a kiss of psychedelia. A book in which strange globules float freely, alien plants shimmy across the pages, and female figures slide into a pool of green plasma. Binding them all together? A beautiful, albeit entirely indecipherable script by an unk … | Continue reading
Style and smiles all-round, saturated to the max; sexy undertones complete with sexist overtones and carefree capitalism – those iconic mid-century advertisements weren't just unique to the magazine pages of white America. In the 1950s and '60s, the notorious advertisers of Madis … | Continue reading
One Size Fits None for Althea Crome, the fiber artist who has been knitting miniature – and micro-mini – sweaters fit for a size range that we'll just call "ladybug (XS) to mouse (XL)." As if knitting a 5mm turtleneck wasn't hard enough, Crome's designs are often imbued with vari … | Continue reading
1. An Entire Old West Town for Sale in New ZealandA detailed replica of an 1860s Wyoming frontier town, set in the heart of a 900-acre ranch has gone up for sale with an asking price of $7.5 million. Found on Bloomberg. 2. French Revolutionary Frescoes Discove | Continue reading
Let's play a little game of Where's Waldo? Only, with men who aren't wearing hats in the above photograph. It raises the question: where have all the elegant fedoras, bowlers, news caps, and top hats gone? Hats have had a role to play for most of our history, walking the line bet … | Continue reading
Crowned as the "original fashion blogger" by the New York Times, Diane Pernet has long been a one of a kind, spellbinding presence in the industry. She has filled so many roles – designer, filmmaker, curator, journalist and influencer (in the truest sense of the word) – that it's … | Continue reading
During his lifetime, Congolese sculptor Bodys Isek Kingelez, did not have a commercial art dealer to represent his work. The self-taught visionary reimagined glittering global capitals for a post-colonial Africa, and made hundreds of "extreme" miniature architectural models throu … | Continue reading
Tromsø, NorwayAs the mainstream media continues to ask if this is "the end of tourism", wondering how they'll reinvent an industry that does so much damage, we thought we'd just pick up where we left off before the pandemic; pointing to off-beat destinations and sticking by our l … | Continue reading
1. Academy Theater, Inglewood California, 1940Still standing, screened movies from 1933 until it became a church in 1975. It got it’s name “The Academy Theater” because it was originally built to be the home and venue for the Academy Awards (the Oscars). But the plans changed.Pho … | Continue reading
Just when we thought we'd be spending the summer of 2020 suntanning from our windowsills, life has returned to the streets once again and Paris has been liberated. While social distancing measures remain in place for the safety of all Parisians, our beloved restaurants, bars, and … | Continue reading
Alliance franco-sénégalaise Ziguinchor © _ccil_You can probably clearly picture the architecture of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and India – but can you say the same for Africa? For thousands of years, Africa helped shape our modern world and yet, so much of it is underrepresent … | Continue reading
©Cevallos Bros. / InstagramSometimes, you just need a sign. Preferably: one crawling with brilliant fonts, memories of your favourite childhood foods and a few brujas on broomsticks. Such are the delightful creations of NYC's local legends, the "Cevallos Brothers," who for almost … | Continue reading
Harlem, New York, the summer of 1935. Years before the United States or even Allied Europe has entered World War II. Large crowds of African Americans are gathering around a registration desk, volunteering to take on a fascist Italian dictator who is soon to become Hitler's fierc … | Continue reading
Artists Linda Montano and Tehching HsiehThe promise was made on American Independence Day, 1983. "We, Linda Montano and Tehching Hsieh, plan to do a one year performance. We will stay together for one year and never be alone...tied together at [the] waist with an 8 foot rope." Ar … | Continue reading
1. A 5 Dollar Jackson Pollock?Teri Horton bought a secondhand painting for $5 and learned that it could be an original Jackson Pollock. She spent years trying to prove it’s authenticity, and was offered $9 million, but refused to sell for any less than $50 million. She had a fore … | Continue reading
The Black Lives Matter movement has opened our eyes in so many ways. It plays a crucial role in upholding the living history of a different side of Paris. This week, Keyholders joined me on Zoom for an introductory Black History Tour through Paris, – one that belonged to Black Am … | Continue reading
Ah, Paris! Global capital of couture, style, and...menus? As café terraces welcome back patrons post-lockdown, it's comes to the attention of our Paris team that tangible menus have gone digital across the city. Restaurants are displaying QR barcodes for customers to scan and acc … | Continue reading
We were supposed to be living on the moon by now – at least, that was our trajectory according to the 1960s. Rockets had landed man on the moon and Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey glamorised high-definition visions of life in space. New worlds were within reach more than ever bef … | Continue reading
©Mark Wagner Inc.For the past few decades, the American artist Mark Wagner has been snipping up US dollars to make intricate collages that comment on Capitalism, greed, and materialism; elaborate allegorical pieces that prompt us to reconsider our relationship with such a powerfu … | Continue reading
Vintage tourism poster of The English Riviera 1920s via PinterestPicture the scene: tricolour flags line the yacht-filled harbour, art-deco hotels dazzle the streets at night, celebrities flurry to villas hidden along the hillside that overlook lanes filled with chic cafés, where … | Continue reading
1. The Supremes in Paris, 1965Found here. 2. The Fisk University Jubilee SingersThe university's A capella group, was established in 1871 - to generate further income for the institution. The original group toured along the Underground Railroad path in the United States, beca | Continue reading
Legends, 1993 © Ron Tarver, Courtesy Robin Rice gallery, New YorkYou may hear it, before you see it. The gentle trotting of hooves backdropped by the sounds of New York City’s JFK Expressway. Even locals do a double take when they cross paths with a member of the Federation of Bl … | Continue reading
Loïs Mailou Jones at her studio in ParisOriginally, this was supposed to be a pretty straight-forward piece on an American ex-pat artist whose paintings of 1930s Paris I'd recently had the fortune of stumbling across via the internet. She was a young black woman who had moved to … | Continue reading
Today, we meet a heroine by the name of Belle da Costa Greene. Under the honey-hued lights of Manhattan's Morgan Library, she became the guardian of the world’s greatest cultural treasures: not one but three Gutenberg bibles, illuminated manuscripts, originals by Da Vinci, Mozart … | Continue reading
A foreword from the founder of Messy Nessy Chic: "I'm so tired," are words that stand out to me in all of this. I've heard them uttered repeatedly from members of the African American community in the aftermath of George Floyd's death on May 25, 2020, which has sent shockwaves th … | Continue reading
Today's edition is dedicated to the #BlackLivesMatter Movement. 1. Fabulous in New York City, Summer of '69Vernon Merritt III/Time Life Pictures, found on Pinterest. 2. Where the term “Dreadlocks” came fromThe term “dreadlocks” comes from a movement of guerrilla warriors | Continue reading
Fonthill Castle © Karl GrafForget the great and gaudy Hearst Castle – why don't they talk about Fonthill Castle? Now that's a house worth seeing. Some might call him America's first hoarder, but for any aspiring collector or lover of eclectic arts, Pennsylvania's most underrated … | Continue reading
Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, Russia © Stephanie Stoll / FlickrTucked in a Russian forest not terribly far from Moscow, you'll find it: a veritable mini-city, populated entirely by space explorers and their kin for over half-a-century. This is "Star City," and g … | Continue reading
So generously preserved of its original features, you can almost imagine a portly butcher emerging from his back room to ask whether you want the Sirloin cut or Tenderloin. And yet this "rare survival" in North London has managed to find new life as a wonderful two-bedroom home … | Continue reading
Ophelia 1851, Sir John Everett MillaisIf there's one thing we've learned over the years, it's to listen to the muse – she usually has the juiciest details behind some of history's most iconic artworks and artists. Today, we travel to the gauzy, sun-dappled world of the romantic p … | Continue reading
1. Restaurants using mannequins to make social distancing less awkwardAn American Michelin-starred restaurant, the Inn at Little Washington, hopes to make its dining room feel less empty once customers return at limited capacity....From mannequins to stuffed animals to pool noodl … | Continue reading
"The earth grew dark, and its figures passed by me ... and among them all I beheld only Morella." Art by Harry Clarke for Edgar Allan Poe's story, "Morella" (1936)Re-discovering history's rebellious and obscure artists is one of our favourite pastimes on the internet. When their … | Continue reading
Naarden vesting, a fort city in the Netherlands © Air Pano.com Next to pasta primavera, star forts have to be one of the coolest things the Italians ever made. Dreamt up in the 15th century to withstand onslaught of a little something called cannonballs, today these hypnotic fort … | Continue reading
On any given night in 1970, a teen somewhere in rural America could dial a number and hear the radical wisdom of Patti Smith, John Cage, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Bourroughs – the list of poets was long, and painfully hip. One needed only the ten sacred digits of "Dial-a-Poem," … | Continue reading
“Inject disinfectant into the human body” sounds like the words of someone who flew over the cuckoo's nest, doesn’t it? Well, once upon a time, women were encouraged to do exactly that, all to accentuate their “dainty femininity” and keep a rein on their man. And, if you were ast … | Continue reading
1. A 1962 Italian Magazine showing how the world would look in 2022Found on Mildly Interesting. 2. An Open-Air Museum of Abandoned Soviet TrainsIn a railway deadlock surrounded by a dense forest, there are decommissioned locomotives and tractors... a strategic reserve in case | Continue reading
Image courtesy of Elspeth BeardIn the summer of 1982, a 23-year-old Elspeth Beard set off on her motorbike, and didn't return home until she'd travelled the entire globe – a remarkable feat for any person, but particularly as a solo female biker nearly 40 years ago, making her on … | Continue reading
It was the Little Mail Truck Who Could. An odd American vehicle – looking more like a patriotic Good & Plenty than a post truck – but by the 1960s, the "Mailster" made up one-third of the post's vehicular fleet, according to The Smithsonian, somehow schlepping 500 lbs of brown pa … | Continue reading
Nanterre, les tours Nuages, by architect Emile Aillaud.Ah, la douce France! Cobblestone streets and cafés lost in time, quaint little ancient villages surrounded by vineyards, heart-achingly beautiful architecture and skylines, just like you've seen it in the movies. Right? Well … | Continue reading
When the going gets tough, the art gets going. That's the beautiful thing about human creativity – it can sprout in any soil. Especially for the late British-French illustrator Edmund Dulac, whose flair for Art Nouveau fantasy not only gave us brilliant literary illustrations, bu … | Continue reading
1. BBC TV Set DesignsDo recognise them? Find the shows they belong to in the BBC Archives via Present & Correct. 2. Perhaps Bandstand Architecture is due for a Comeback?1930s’ architecture comes to the parks of Whitehaven (above) and Sw | Continue reading
Photograph by Ana Santl courtesy of Bellerby & CoGot your passport handy? Today, we chat with the founder of London's Bellerby & Co., one of the world's last remaining globemakers. Fancy a globe the size of a comet? They can make it. How about one crawling with medieval monsters … | Continue reading
One of these days, I hope to see this 500 year-old ghost town, perched precariously on top of a giant rock, sitting in a canyon somewhere in Yemen. I'd also like to see the world's oldest skyscraper city, known as Yemen's "Manhattan of the Desert". And then there's that island of … | Continue reading
Let's go back for a moment to the swinging sixties in London's Notting Hill. Portobello Road is the main artery of the hippie movement, heaving with bohemians musicians and freethinking "freaks", as they're known to the establishment. Jimmy Hendrix hasn't yet taken a fatal overd … | Continue reading
A contemporary "corn dolly" crown / Messums LondonAnd now, for a DIY project at the intersection of spooky and cozy: the corn doll – which isn't always in the form of a doll, mind you. That term is shorthand for any kind of straw artwork, be it a horseshoe or a crown, a dog or a … | Continue reading