Picture yourself in an oak-paneled study: the kind where there are leather club chairs, shelves lined with books, and a roaring fire in the fireplace. Naturally, there’s a desk in this office, and on top of it, a lamp. Maybe your mind has already filled in the blank. The lamp, in this case, is a banker’s lamp, with a brass base and kelly-green shade.
Lucy Maud Montgomery at 10 years old in 1884.
It’s the first full week of Lent, when the fervor of Ash Wednesday starts to die down and we wonder what we really signed ourselves up for. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m eating like St. Hildegard this Lent. I know many of you are wondering what that exactly means, and maybe some...
As the festive season is upon us, it seems a good time to look at the history of the Christmas carol and to explore, with the help of the British Library’s collections, the origins of some of the best-known carols. This is the first of two posts on the subject,...
"The most prompt of all poisons." -Pliny the Elder, in Natural History. Wolfsbane, Monkshood, Aconite Wolfsbane. Courtesy of the author. Aconitum
Vividly coloured wallpaper was the height of fashion for aspirational Victorians – and the cause of countless deaths
Battered by rejections of Anne of Green Gables, L.M Montgomery decided to give it one more shot to find a publisher for the story that became a classic.
Mikhail Nesterov 1862-1942 Rusland
Established in 1979, we are the only artist-founded museum in Los Angeles. We are dedicated to collecting and exhibiting contemporary art.
This edited article about Crete originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 238 published on 6 August 1966. A reconstruction of the Palace of Knossos by Harry Green The island of Crete, in the Aegean Sea, is barely 160 miles long by 35 miles wide. But it has an importance in history out of […]
Scivias is Hildegard of Bingen's first major work. The 35 images contained in the manuscript illustrate 26 of Hildegard's most vivid visions.
As we celebrate springtime, we are uncovering the history and profile of the color green with the greenest paintings of all-time, symbolism of the color and how it inspires artists.
In contrast to today's rather mundane spawn of coffeehouse chains, the London of the 17th and 18th century was home to an eclectic and thriving coffee drinking scene. Dr Matthew Green explores the halcyon days of the London coffeehouse, a haven for caffeine-fueled debate and innovation which helped to shape the modern world. From the tar-caked wharves of Wapping to the gorgeous lamp-lit squares of St James’s and Mayfair, visitors to eighteenth-century London were amazed by an efflorescence of coffeehouses. “In London, there are a great number of coffeehouses”, wrote the Swiss noble César de Saussure in 1726, “...workmen habitually
After the Romans left in AD410 waves of Germanic invaders migrated to Britain, some knowing the land, who had served the Romans as foederati. The kingdoms of theJutes, Angles and Saxons grew...
Because I love green, and always like time lines of fashion. This is by no means a complete overview of clothing in a certain era, but just a list of my own favorites. 15th century 16th century 17t…
Songsheet of 'The March of the Women', 1911. Songsheet in the suffragette colours of purple, green and white, showing women and children marching with the banner of the Women's Social and Political...
Today is apparently the birthday of Hildegard of Bingen (September 16, 1098-September 17, 1179). I say "apparently," because record keeping from the 11th century is notoriously unreliable. Though most accounts of her life that do include a date for her birth list it as September 16, so it at least seems somewhat agreed upon despite
Period: Late Imperial. Date: early 3rd century A.D.. Culture: Roman, Egyptian. Medium: Papyrus. Dimensions: H.: 4 x 3 1/8 in. (10.2 x 7.9 cm). Classificatio...
Coral Necklaces from 1400-1700 I love the coral necklaces I find in Renaissance portraits of women. There is something much more amiable and sophisticated about a simple string of coral beads in c…
Cada escena en el cuadro de El Bosco podría ser una pintura por sí sola.
How Goethe fueled Tesla, why Newton pricked his own eye, and other lessons in breaking the rules of science for breakthroughs.
Botanical Name of Devil's Claw: Harpagophytum procumbens (Burchell). Other Common Names: Grapple plant, harpagon, wood spider. Habitat: The herb devil’s claw is native to southern Africa particularly the Kalahari Desert, Namibia, and Madagascar. Description: Devil's claw is a perennial plant with tubers and many, round to oval-shaped stems. The leaves have white, hairy undersides. Solitary, red to purple flowers, shaped like trumpets appear in spring followed by the fruit. The name devil’s claw comes from the hooks that cover its fruits. Plant Parts Used: Roots and tuber. The root is collected when the rainy season ends. Devil's Claw (Harpagophytum procumbens)
S’il avait vécu dans l’aristocratie italienne du XVIIIe siècle, Luc Schuiten se serait sans doute appelé Côme Laverse du Rondeau. Côme Laverse du Rondeau c’est ce jeune héros d’Italo Calvino, Baron…
An analysis of Britons’ genes confirms some myths and explodes others
Ghent Altarpiece detail, 1432 Jan Van Eyck
interior designer Barbara Barry has a unique and elegant style synonymous with the title of her gorgeous book, "Around Beauty" | Interior design genius
Darlinghurst, Woolloomooloo & Kings Cross in the 1920s & 1930s was a world of vicious ‘razor’ gangs battling for control, led by Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh
Spring is the perfect season to celebrate Hildegard of Bingen, the medieval Rhineland mystic, naturalist, seer, writer, gardener, composer, and physician. The world is leaping to life in every colo…
It was ages ago that I made a tutorial for something and I had this one kind of laying around (in the paper version) so I thought that I should make it into a pretty Illustrator picture and upload …
Some foods rot fast—so it’s cause for celebration among archaeologists when they dig up food preserved for centuries past its expiration date.
Edward Steichen 1879-1973. One of the great American photographers whose work I discovered whilst living in New York. The simplicity and lighting never seizes to take my breath away.Truly an inspiration.
