A wooden board marked clear and rain, with a thin twig fixed to a log reaching towards it.

NB! · Archive · Geography · Nature · Ethnography

Willow twig barometer at a reindeer farm in Shebalino in the Altai

A barometer on a reindeer farm at Shebalino in the Altai. The secret is that the "barometer" uses a willow twig. As the humidity rises, the twig loses its springiness and droops. Photograph by the American Dean Conger, who travelled in the USSR in 1966-75.

The East · Geography · Art · Observations · Nature

Senchikhin's 1969 painting of the Aral and the disappearance of the Aral Sea

The Aral Sea, a boat, 1969. This picture hangs in my home in one of the most prominent places, beside several similarly unassuming subjects, all of them from the Aral. It is a fairly simple specimen of the genre study in the Impressionist manner, by an author who is not

Geography · Maps · Monarchies · Museums · Education · Paris

Edme Mentelle's 1788 globe for the Dauphin on display at the National Library of France

This colossal globe, 1.3 metres in diameter, was made by the renowned geographer Edme Mentelle in 1788 at the commission of Louis XVI for the education of the Dauphin. The outer sphere opens along the prime meridian, which at that time ran through the Canary Islands; on its reverse

Geography · People · Nature

Incidentally, today is considered the day of the discovery of Florida by the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León, who in 1513 led an expedition in search of either new lands for Ferdinand I, or the fountain of eternal youth, which…

Incidentally, today is considered the day of the discovery of Florida by the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León, who in 1513 led an expedition in search of either new lands for Ferdinand I, or the fountain of eternal youth, which is mentioned in an ancient legend that places it

NB! · Faith · Geography · Art

An eighteenth-century oak pulpit: the animals embody inspiration drawn from the beauty of creation, while the women at its base are the four continents where faith is to reign: Europe, Asia, America and Africa

Archaeology · Geography · Maps · Observations

Wrecksite.eu, the largest shipwreck database with maps and a library

I have found a wildly cool website that will be useful to anyone working on maritime history and naval battles: it is the largest shipwreck database in the world. Here you will find maps, a calendar of accidents at sea, the finds of underwater archaeologists, data on shipowners and shipbuilders,

NB! · Geography · Maps · London · Pop Culture · Humour

A map of London on a kid glove, so that fashionable ladies might easily find their way home

A map of London on a leather glove, so that fashionable ladies might easily find their way home. 1851. These days maps could be printed for them on condoms, for instance

Archive · Geography · Moscow · Nature

The Moscow tornado of 16 June 1904, over 100 dead and Gilyarovsky's description

On 16 June 1904 a tornado struck Moscow; the force of the wind that day is estimated at 25 m/s, that is 9 on the 12-point Beaufort scale (or a storm). More than 100 people were killed that day and more than 800 were injured. Gilyarovsky described the

NB! · Geography · Art · Books · Nature

And here is a touching drawing of a bird discovered by that same scandalous seafarer William Dampier, from his 1703 book on the voyage to the shores of New Holland

Aristocracy · Faith · Geography · Monarchies

Princes Edward and Edwin in Ladoga and Kyiv, and a theory of British monks on Valaam

In the late tenth century England found itself in a very precarious position, aggravated by the unceasing raids of the Vikings. By 1016, fifty years before the Norman Conquest, it had been wholly conquered by the Vikings. After the Danish conquest, Cnut of the House of Knýtlinga, son of the

Round medieval map with a green ring of ocean and the labels Asia, Europa and Africa inside.

NB! · Geography · Maps · Books · Observations

Medieval world diagram with three continents and no America

Fine! It is simply a very detailed map of the world, as it would look had there been no America on earth. The map wanders through many medieval treatises and invites one to consider whether books are to be trusted.

Archaeology · Archive · Geography · Observations · Society

For the last week and a half I have been writing every day, sorting through old notes, editing and so forth

For the last week and a half I have been writing every day, sorting through old notes, editing and so forth. When I say old notes, I mean, for example, the field journals of the 1920s and 1930s from the Mongolian expedition and curious jottings on the Russian explorers of