Archive · Faith · Books · Mores · Ethnography

Mikhail Lomonosov in 1761 on worldly thoughts on the eve of Easter

"The bright Resurrection of Christ draws near, the universal joy of Christendom. Then, though the Passion of the Lord is read almost without cease and many times repeated, our thoughts are already upon Holy Week: one pictures to himself pleasant and rich dishes; another wonders whether his clothes will

Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Science · People

To mark Cosmonautics Day, here is a photograph of James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847-1913), President of the Royal Astronomical Society, dressed in heraldic regalia for the coronation of King George V in 1911

In the intervals of his aristocratic existence, this imposing old gentleman assembled one of the largest libraries of rare books in England, organised expeditions to the East to observe solar eclipses and the transit of Venus, built a private observatory, patronised astronomers, became a sponsor of the founding of the

Black and white photograph of an elderly bearded man in a hat and dark clothes shaking hands with a near-naked athlete standing before him.

Archive · People · Humour

Eadweard Muybridge shaking hands with an anonymous athlete, photograph of about 1887

Are You Quite Sure You're a Photographer? In the hat: one of the pioneers of English photography, Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904). The athlete in shorts has preferred to remain anonymous. Photograph of c. 1887

Evening view of New York with crosses of lit windows glowing on the facades of three skyscrapers.

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Faith · New York

Illuminated crosses on New York skyscrapers at Easter in the 1950s and 1960s

Easter illumination on New York's skyscrapers in the 1950s and 1960s. For many years in a row the city was decked out for Easter with luminous crosses on a great number of landmark buildings, but at some point it all came to an end...

Archive · Science · Humour

In the future you will be able to carry a telephone in your pocket!

April 1963

NB! · Archive · Paris · People

Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle at the Armistice Day Parade on 11 November 1944, Champs-Élysées, Paris

Old sepia photograph of an infant in light clothes lying in an open case, with a cello standing beside it.

Archive · The East · People

The infant Mstislav Rostropovich in a cello case, Baku, 1927

Mstislav Rostropovich in a cello case. With his little left hand he touches the strings. Baku, 1927 His father, Leopold Rostropovich (1892-1942), was a cellist, conductor and teacher, and moved to Baku to teach. He would later become a professor at the Azerbaijan Conservatoire

Archive · Museums · Observations · Society

A 1954 document on a reprimand for forgery as a possible exhibit for a Jewish Museum

I have in my possession a unique document in which a party commission examines the offence of a man who had, on his own authority, altered his nationality in his autobiography and personnel file from "Jewish" to "Russian", for himself and for his parents. Such is

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · People

Queen Victoria in a donkey-drawn carriage during her visit to France in March 1891

NB! · Archive · Art · People

The 1930s

The 1930s. A shot by one of the creators of the Hollywood style in photography, Murray Korman (1902-1961), incidentally a native of the town of Kamianets-Podilskyi

Archive · Art

Claude Mellan’s Engraving of Selene’s Chariot and the Three Lunar Goddesses of Greek Tradition

The Chariot of the Goddess Selene. Claude Mellan after a drawing by Pietro da Cortona, 1646. In the Greek tradition the Moon is associated with three goddesses: Hecate, patroness of sorcery, as the hypostasis of mystery; Artemis the huntress with her crescent bow, as the hypostasis of wandering; and the

Pencil drawing of two men forming a camel, one bent forward, the other standing and holding up the animal's neck and head.

NB! · Archive · Art

Two sketches of a camel costume for an opera in 17th-century France

The magic of opera in two sketches for a camel costume. France, 17th century