Archive · Moscow · Society

An archive of photographs of Stalin's Moscow and other Soviet cities, taken by a US embassy employee expelled from the country for espionage, found in the cupboard of an old house

While in Moscow, Major Martin Manhoff of the US Army, attached to the embassy, was restricted in his movements, yet he managed to take unique photographs of a Soviet world of sharp contrasts. Major Manhoff served at the US embassy in Moscow from February 1952 until June 1954, when he

Archive · Books · People

Perhaps this is what we seek in life, only this: unbearable pain, so as to become ourselves before we die

"Journey to the End of the Night", Louis-Ferdinand Céline. In the photograph, Céline in front of his house in Meudon in 1955

Archive · Pop Culture · Humour

Crossword clues for the across entries, numbers 3 to 29

The Brilliant "Void Crossword" by Anton Olshvang, 1999. Across: 3. A gradual advance 8. Work without a contract 11. The part of a pencil that is not the lead 12. A simulation of good health 13. A superfluous plant in the house 14. An intention repeated many times

NB! · Archive · Cinema

Federico Fellini adjusts Marcello Mastroianni's hair on the set of 8½, 1963

Archive · Architecture · Faith · Paris

Cathedral without its spire, draped in mourning for the funeral of the Duke of Orléans

The oldest photograph of Notre-Dame de Paris is a seven-centimetre daguerreotype of 1842 by Marc-Antoine Gaudin. If you have noticed, the cathedral is captured without its famous spire: it was taken down in the eighteenth century, having grown badly decrepit over six hundred years. The spire was

NB! · Archive · London

Woman with a Letter in London, photographed by Cecil Beaton for Vogue, 1940

NB! · Archive · Cinema · People · Pop Culture

Catherine Deneuve, aged 22

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Saint Petersburg

Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich as Onegin and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna as Tatyana in a palace production of Eugene Onegin, 1890s

In a black-and-white photograph, a man in a cap follows a plough drawn by two oxen, with the columns of a ruined temple on the hill behind under a cloudy sky.

Archive · Architecture · The East · Observations · Heritage · Humour

A farmer ploughs a field with oxen beside the ruins of an ancient temple

A farmer ploughs his field beside the 1st-century Temple of Zeus at Aizanoi, Turkey, 1970. And no tourists disturb his contemplation of this magnificence

Black-and-white photograph of a dry riverbed with rock ledges, heaps of broken stone and a fenced path on the left.

Archive · Geography · Nature

Riverbed without water and heaps of fragmented rock in a black-and-white photograph

In 1969 Niagara Falls Was Halted for Several Months, and What Had Lain Hidden Under Water for Thousands of Years Came to Light. Nothing supernatural, however: a riverbed and fragments of rock

Black and white photograph of a man in a suit and polka dot tie holding a cigarette, wearing an ancient helmet that covers his face.

NB! · Archaeology · Archive · People

Archaeologist Manuel Esteve in a Corinthian helmet he discovered, 1938

The Spanish archaeologist Manuel Esteve poses in a Corinthian helmet he has discovered. 1938

NB! · Archive · Faith · People