Archive · London · Monarchies · Science · People
Yury Gagarin's triumphal reception in England: jubilant crowds in Manchester and London, an exchange of courtesies with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan at the Admiralty, and a reception at Buckingham Palace with Elizabeth II. As shown on British television
Archive · London · Monarchies · Society · People
Sixty years ago, from 11 to 15 July 1961, Yury Gagarin visited Great Britain. As part of his world tour, Major Gagarin arrived in Manchester at the invitation of the local foundrymen, and not at all as an official state guest. Nevertheless, soon after his arrival he received an invitation
Archive · London · Museums · Heritage · Nature · Humour
If they call you a paper-pusher (literally, an "office rat"), don't be upset. After all, there was once a rat with a fondness for paperwork who became a co-founder of the National Archives of the United Kingdom. When the public figure, inventor and all-
NB! · Archive · Mores · People
Do you know who is in the middle of this photograph, flanked by her sisters and brother? Seventeen-year-old Frida Kahlo, in a man's suit. The year was 1925, European fashionable ladies were only just beginning to work trousers into their wardrobes, and Frida already felt perfectly
NB! · Archive · Museums · Science
Archive · Books · People · Rome
Byron visited the Roman Colosseum in 1817, when the ruins were still wholly overgrown with thick vegetation and a veritable carpet of flowers. He wrote of it: "I have passed some days in wondrous Rome, and am delighted with Rome. As a whole, Rome, both ancient and modern, is
Coming Up · Archive · Interviews · Books · Moscow
An exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of the Library of Foreign Literature itself and the 120th anniversary of its founder, Margarita Ivanovna Rudomino, has opened at the library. The display includes the first director's personal belongings, letters and photographs. It also features an unusual multimedia element: an interview
Archive · Art · Observations · Humour
Expectation and reality: Jacques Drésa's costume design for Papageno the bird-catcher in Mozart's "The Magic Flute", and the same costume realised for Lucien Fugère in the 1922 production of the opera. To my mind, Papageno looks far more striking in the flesh. Do
NB! · Archive · Art · Mores · Paris
The centaur's kiss on the cover of La Vie Parisienne. 1924, drawing by Georges Léonnec
Archive · Art · Moscow · People
“Autumn came in sixty-three, November. One day I came out of the TYuZ (I worked there as a lighting technician), walked up Gorky Street and saw fresh posters for an exhibition of American graphic art. I thumped the hoarding in delight and noticed two men eyeing me; I heard
NB! · Archive · Mores · People · Pop Culture
A little fishing in Scotland, skiing in Saint-Moritz: such were the weekends of Coco Chanel, photographed for the February 1931 issue of the magazine l’Art vivant. The photographs are by Germaine Krull, very popular in those years.
NB! · Archive · Science · Pop Culture · Humour
In the future you will be able to carry a telephone in your pocket. A prediction from 1963