Archive · Faith · Science · People

Georges Lemaître, Belgian priest, astronomer and author of the expanding universe theory

Father Georges Lemaître explains the Big Bang theory to Pope Pius XII. The Belgian priest Georges Lemaître was an astronomer and mathematician, a doctor of sciences, a professor of astrophysics, who worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, became the author of the theory of the expanding Universe and made

Black-and-white photo: cars and vans stand in the dark nave of a Gothic church with stained-glass windows and scaffolding.

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Faith · Heritage

Cars parked inside a Gothic church with scaffolding

A blue and white platter showing a bull in a landscape with a man standing on the right, displayed on a shelf with a red background.

NB! · Archive · Mores · Nature · Humour

The Durham ox, which died in 1807 weighing over 1,200 kg, appeared on plates

This Durham ox won posthumous fame, and a place on plates and postcards, merely by weighing a great deal. At the time of his death in 1807 he weighed over 1,200 kg

Archive · Interviews · Society · People

Viktor Petrovich Astafyev, in conversation with Georgy Stepanovich Zhzhenov about the war, voices an interesting thought about a people that calls itself great, yet for some reason lets itself be led on a leash like a calf, chooses a criminal government f

Viktor Petrovich Astafyev, in conversation with Georgy Stepanovich Zhzhenov about the war, voices an interesting thought about a people that calls itself great, yet for some reason lets itself be led on a leash like a calf, chooses a criminal government for itself and condemns itself to a beggarly existence.

Archive · Faith · Museums · Heritage

During the brief but most brutal Nazi occupation of the Moscow region, a great many museums and churches came under attack

During the brief but most brutal Nazi occupation of the Moscow region, a great many museums and churches came under attack. People of science and art threw all their strength into saving the treasures of culture: very many collections simply could not be evacuated in time, and their fate had

Archive · The East · Books · Monarchies

In A Glimpse of Empire, the artist and writer Jessica Douglas-Home's book on the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to India, the so-called Delhi Durbar held in honour of the coronation, and based on her grandmother's diaries, there is…

King George, who attached little importance to appearances and their effects, was dressed in a military uniform and helmet, and rode on horseback. The Queen followed behind him in sumptuous attire, drawing the attention of the gawping crowds. George simply got lost among the generals, and, looking at the magnificently

NB! · Archive · Moscow · Observations · People · Humour

Here is my beloved Alla Demidova at twenty

Here is my beloved Alla Demidova at twenty. She is not yet a student of the Shchukin Theatre School, but for now an actress of the Moscow State University student theatre under the direction of Igor Lipsky. Do correct me if I am mistaken, but I see a strong portrait

Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Observations

Princess Feodora Romanova proved a distant relative of the Nazi Ernst Reventlow

Leafing through old newspapers, I came across a mention of Princess Theodora Romanov, widow of Prince Dmitri Romanovich, head of the House of Romanov and great-great-grandson of Nicholas I. A most attractive woman who looks wonderful for her 78 years, the Princess was born Dorrit Reventlow, of an

Hand-drawn frame: a green horned creature in a red jacket stands in hilly country beside a figure in a cream fur coat leaning on a stick planted in the snow.

NB! · Archive

Animation still: a green creature in a red jacket and a figure in a fur coat

A woman in a turquoise satin cloak and a flowered hat walks two white borzoi dogs wearing pearl decorations on their necks.

NB! · Archive · Observations · Mores · New York · Pop Culture

The New York Times publishes Bill Cunningham's photographs of New York Easter parades from 1997 to 2007

The NYTimes has recently published a selection of Bill Cunningham's photographs of New York's Easter parades, which ran in Sunday Styles from 1997 to 2007. A time to which one would truly like to return 🌧💖

Diary page dated Thursday, 14 February 1884, with a large cross and the handwritten line “The light has gone out of my life”.

Archive · New York · People

Theodore Roosevelt loses his mother and wife on the same day, 14 February 1884

The light has gone out of my life: a diary entry by Theodore Roosevelt. On 14 February 1884 the future American president Theodore Roosevelt lost his mother, who died of typhoid fever at the age of 48, and his wife, aged 22, who died of acute kidney failure after giving

Archive · Books · Heritage · Saint Petersburg

On the history of the Warsaw Library in Russia, there are interesting documents left by one of the first employees of the Imperial Library, Mikhail Ivanovich Antonovsky

On the history of the Warsaw Library in Russia, there are interesting documents left by one of the first employees of the Imperial Library, Mikhail Ivanovich Antonovsky. A writer, historian and translator, M.I. served the state in posts ranging from the Admiralty and the fleet to diplomatic errands. In