The East · Art · Books · Mores · Ethnography

Iranian Women of the Qajar Era in Japanese Woodcuts from the Book by the Engineer and Topographer Naoyuki Furukawa, Describing Japan's First Diplomatic Contact with Iran in 1880 and 1881

Iranian women of the Qajar era in Japanese woodcuts from the book by the engineer and topographer Naoyuki Furukawa, describing Japan's first diplomatic contact with Iran in 1880 and 1881. The mission was carried out under the leadership of Yoshida Masaharu. Besides recounting the incidents of the journey,

Archive · Books · Mores · People · Saint Petersburg

Alexander Kuprin at a Feast in a Pushkin House Negative and His Taste for Food

In a photograph of the 1910s taken in Saint Petersburg by the master of reportage Iosif Otsup, Alexandr Kuprin sits second from the left at a laid table. The archivists of Pushkin House have provisionally titled this negative a novelist's feast in the company of friends. The identities

Black and white photograph of camels harnessed to sledges loaded with bales and barrels, standing beside railway wagons at a station.

NB! · Archive · Geography · Mores

Camel train carrying goods at Kurgan station of the South Ural Railway in the 1890s

Delivery of goods by camel. Kurgan station on the South Ural Railway, 1890s

NB! · The East · Books · Mores · Humour

Gaspard Drouville observes that Persian women, though they wear the chador, and even when covered from head to foot, possess a peculiar art of recognising one another from a great distance, whereas their husbands often walk right beside them and cannot te

The East · Books · Mores

Gaspard Drouville on how Persians sleep on the floor and make their beds

The Persians sleep on the floor. Beds are made up every evening, cleared away every morning and stored in the closets for the whole day. According to the rank and wealth of the persons concerned, they are made of one mattress or of many, of broadcloth, of a fine chintz

Observations · Mores · Society

Origin of the word client, from a Roman patron's protection to paid services

I do not usually comment on shameful stories like the one that took place in a Georgian hotel. But for the completeness of this disgraceful drama it must be observed that the word “client” originally denoted a person under protection. The Latin cliens goes back to the verb cluere, “to

The East · Monarchies · Mores · People

Soraya Esfandiari-Bakhtiari, wife of the Shah of Iran, and her divorce over the lack of an heir

Empress or Queen of Iran: Soraya in 1953. Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary was born in 1932 to an Iranian diplomat and a German aristocrat. She spoke several languages fluently, received a European education and from her youth stood out for her extraordinary beauty. In 1951 Soraya married Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah

Archive · Books · Mores

Thomas Salmon on the bribery of judges in Russia in his 1735 book

In any dispute, the first thing done is to bribe the judge. Money is taken from both sides, as is well known, and he who gives more wins the case. Thomas Salmon, "Modern History, or the Present State of ... Russia", 1735

Archive · Art · Mores · Paris · Humour

A Humorous Design for a Summer Theatre Hall for Gentlemen, Where One Might Sit Half-Undressed: The Heat of 1861

Drawing by Alfred Grévin (1827-1892) for the cover of issue 281 of the Petit Journal pour Rire. A simple design for a summer hall for gentlemen, submitted to the gentlemen among the theatre directors, or even to the gentlemen of the commission for the creation of a new opera

Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · Ethnography

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's little house with textiles made by her mother, the Countess of Strathmore

The Queen Mother's dolls' house from Glamis Castle in Scotland, the ancestral seat of the Earls of Strathmore, where Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the future wife of George VI and mother of Elizabeth II, spent her childhood. Inside the future Queen Mother's house there are two

Black-and-white photo: young men in a truck wave to villagers, while an elderly woman in a headscarf wipes away tears in the foreground.

Archive · Mores · Ethnography

Conscripts being seen off to the army in a Tatar village in 1984

This photograph by Rustam Mukhametzyanov is titled "A Tatar Woman's Farewell" 1984, a send-off to the army in a Tatar village.

Faith · Observations · Mores · Society

Public prayer before the anthem at Oklahoma City Thunder home games for 20 years

Catholic Salesian nuns from San Antonio, long-standing fans of the Spurs basketball club, blessed their favourite player Luke Cornet before the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. It is curious that the Oklahoma City Thunder, for their part, have been holding a public prayer of invocation before every home