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Olearius on the Kabardian delegation's visit to the Tsar's court in 1634

The German Olearius witnessed a visit by a Kabardian delegation to the Tsar's court in 1634. What particularly struck Olearius was that the Kabardians arrived in modest array and with no particular occasion or pretext for conversation with the Tsar's officials, yet were presented with silk

NB! · Faith · Books · Humour

A Bookmark in an Eighteenth-Century Suetonius, Salisbury Cathedral Library

A bookmark in an eighteenth-century Suetonius, Salisbury Cathedral Library. You get the idea.

Science · Mores

Why Ice in Victorian Bars Remained a Rarity Because of Contaminated Water

By the 1840s American bartenders had already shown the British cocktails with ice, but the use of ice in Victorian bars remained a curiosity all the same. Strange as it may seem, many sensible people were extremely wary of drinking water, and equally of adding it to their drinks, even

Books · Observations · Mores · Society

Charles Dickens on Entertainment and Newspapers in “American Notes” of 1843

Is there no amusement here? Why, yes. Over the way, there is the lecture-room, from which shafts of light pour out, and then, three times a week or more, there are evening services for the ladies. For the young gentlemen there are the counting-house, the store and the

Archive · Observations · Society · Humour

Glavarkhiv meeting discusses loans for archive staff as salaries fail to match prices

November 1919. Exceptionally hard conditions of life for employees. Salaries out of all proportion to the price of food, clothing and fuel. Institutions grant their workers loans to tide them over several months. At a meeting convened by the head of the Chief Archive Administration (Glavarkhiv) the opinion is voiced

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · Nature · Humour

The lion presented to King Frederick I by the governor of Algiers was, after its death, handed over to a taxidermist who, it is true, had never seen a living lion and, receiving the bones and the skin separately, produced this

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Nature

The Swedish Lion, or the Lion of Gripsholm Castle, was once a favourite of King Frederick I, and is today one of the emblems of the royal residence, alongside its portrait gallery, its theatre and its 18th-century interiors

NB! · Museums · Observations · Humour

The Plague-Struck Stuffed Lion in a Tower of Gripsholm Castle, Sweden

Faith · Art · Mores · Ethnography

Norwegian likvaka dance beside the dead persisted until the end of the 19th century

The traditional Norwegian dance of the dead, the likvaka, went like this: a crowd of young people gathered in the house of the deceased and danced to lively music, shaking the floor so hard that the corpse lying there in its bed or coffin jumped. Sometimes the dance was arranged

Faith · Observations · Humour

On intelligent life beyond Earth and the creation of kingdoms as a sign of reason

In the Gospel of Luke, in the fourth chapter, where the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness and He met the devil, there is an interesting moment: "And the devil, taking Him up into a high mountain, showed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a momen.

NB! · Faith · Art · Museums

Saint George, a curly-haired little boy, 15th century, Sartorio Museum, Trieste, Italy

Archive · Heritage · Society · People

Marx and Engels archive taken out of Germany in 1933 and bought by Posthumus

The Social Democratic Party of Germany once assembled an impressive archive of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, comprising the extensive correspondence between Marx and Engels, other letters, and their manuscripts and notes. In 1933 the Russian historian Boris Ivanovich Nikolaevsky managed to get the party's archive out of

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