Archive · Society · Saint Petersburg

Yegor Larichkin, accused in the case of the murder of Mikhail Gertsenshtein, together with his guards at a window of the building where the court sessions were held

Yegor Larichkin, accused in the case of the murder of Mikhail Gertsenshtein, together with his guards at a window of the building where the court sessions were held. Terijoki, Grand Duchy of Finland, 1909. Now Zelenogorsk, a district of Saint Petersburg. The Russian Empire we have lost

NB! · Archive · Mores · Ethnography

A Scene in a Russian Village after the Manoeuvres, 1936

Archive · Cinema · Books · Monarchies · Society

So autumn has passed, as though it had never been. A digest of the most interesting posts of November for cosy reading:

📌 For the youngest alchemists of the channel: three magical alphabets 📌 In the Parnassian Mockingbird rubric: a review of Guillermo del Toro's new “Frankenstein” 📌 I tell the story of the recovered jewels of the Habsburg dynasty 📌 In half a century California has built 22 prisons and 1 university; we

Almaty · Archive · The East · Geography · Nature

Disappearance of the Turan tiger in Central Asia and hopes for reintroducing a related species

A Hunting Party of the 5th Turkestan Line Battalion, Fifteen Other Ranks Strong, with Tigers Killed in the Environs of the River Amu Darya. The Caspian tiger, which ranged from the Caucasus to the north-west of China and had made its home across vast territories along the southern shore

NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Museums · Mores

A Precious Reliquary with a Lock of Lucrezia Borgia's Hair in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan

Black-and-white photograph of an elderly man in a cap leaning towards a woman in a headscarf carrying a bag on a busy city street, with a young woman in a coat walking beside them.

Archive · Moscow · Mores

Passers-by on a Moscow Street in 1972 in a Photograph by Vladimir Sychev

This Silly Love. Moscow, 1972 Photograph by Vladimir Sychev

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Society

A pelican feeding its young with its own blood: the emblem of the Department of the Institutions of Empress Maria

A pelican feeding its young with its own blood: the emblem of the Department of the Institutions of Empress Maria. That is, Maria Feodorovna, consort of Emperor Paul I. This was the name of the principal department administering charity in the Russian Empire

Archive · Books · Mores · Education · Saint Petersburg · Humour

Gymnastics for Young Ladies, Adapted to Their Various Ages, for Public and Domestic Education

Gymnastics for Young Ladies, Adapted to Their Various Ages, for Public and Domestic Education. Adopted as a guide in the Saint Petersburg institutes under the Department of the Institutions of Empress Maria. The author, a doctor of medicine and surgery, described exercises intended specifically for women. The doctor held that

Archive · Science · People · Pop Culture

The legendary tale of two college dropouts who, working in a California garage, changed the world of computing usually omits Apple's third founder, Ronald Wayne (who, incidentally, created the first…

On 1 April 1976 Wayne drew up the partnership agreement for the Apple Computer Company, typing it out on his own IBM typewriter. He received a 10 per cent stake in the start-up, but the trio did not last long: twelve days later, fearing financial liability, Wayne withdrew from

Black-and-white photo through a doorway: in a kitchen a man in a white shirt stirs a pan while a young man in the foreground looks back.

Archive · Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture

Good morning and breakfast wishes with a photograph of men in a kitchen

Paul Newman, Anthony Perkins and Joanne Woodward in the Kitchen, 1958. Good morning, and a hearty breakfast to all!

Archive · Books · Science

The @ symbol from a medieval monastic ligature to Ray Tomlinson's email

The Medieval Dog. Strange as it may seem, the symbol @, which Russians call a "dog", appeared long before the internet: it was invented back in the Middle Ages. To economise precious parchment and the copyists' time, monks replaced the frequently occurring Latin preposition "ad" with

Medieval miniature: a crowned winged woman turns a golden wheel with a king seated on top and figures falling from its sides.

NB! · Archive · Art · Books

The Wheel of Fortune in a 15th-century miniature for Giovanni Boccaccio's work on the fates of the noble

The Wheel of Fortune in a 15th-century edition of Giovanni Boccaccio's "Fates of Illustrious Men and Women" looks like a fairground carousel, with a king enthroned at the very top while courtiers go flying off the rickety side seats