Paper Clock

One year posting. Time to knock it on the head?

Suriname 1599-1975

Nearly 13,000 images including maps, postcards, posters, photographs, illustrations, etc, held at Amsterdam University. The above selection is from 'P.J. Benoît, Voyage à Surinam (1839)'. Link…

Sea City

"Project for Tel Aviv, made for the Venice Biennale 2004. 'Sea-City' is an extension of the city into the open sea. Each of two compact city clusters placed on 80-metre-high service towers accommodates a population of 100,000 inhabitants who can live and work there in a unique atmosphere. Tunnels under the seabed connect these new urban centres with each other. The clusters are linked to the mainland by short, easily secured routes.
From the 'Excellent lost competitions and designs that really ought to be built', section of Ortner & Ortner.


They don't only design buildings. Link…

Xipe Totec – Our Lord the Flayed One

Xipe Totec flayed himself to give food to humanity, symbolic of the maize seed losing the outer layer of the seed before germination. Without his skin, he was depicted as a golden god. Annually, slaves were selected as sacrifices to Xipe Totec. These slaves were carefully flayed to produce a nearly whole skin which was then worn by the priests during the fertility rituals that followed the sacrifice. Link…
A Xipe figure might be a representation of the god itself, a deity impersonator, an ’assistant-type’ impersonator (the xipeme), or the ruler wearing a Xipe battle costume–or, perhaps, any combination of the above. Link…

Dalai Howard Argy Bargy

What I don't understand is why Howard calls the Dalai Lama, "Ned". "It's too hard Ned".

Musical Instruments

See and hear (click on the note) examples of instruments from museums around the Francophone world. Link…

Crate Art

Fruit crate labels from the early 1900s to 1950s. [related] Link…

San Diego Navy Historical Association

Preserving the story of the Recruit Training Command and Naval Training Center through postcards, posters and documents. Link…

Ed Pranger

WWII cartoons from The Hoist newspaper and Wing Tips training booklets. Link…

Andamanese

This is a clip from a French documentary. It's about first contact with the Jarawa. Link…
[I wanted to try out the new video uploading feature from blogger]

Buildings in Africa

Some wonderful examples of architecture on some of these French postcards. Link…

Whipping Post

Postcards from the Delaware Postcard Collection, depicting punishment. How monstrously quaint. "Having a great time. Wish you were here". Link…

Hong Kong Art Archive

A selection of images. Link…

Old Libraries

The photographs of medieval English and continental libraries were purchased, commissioned or taken by John Willis Clark for the illustrations in his 1901 publication, The Care of Books. Link…

Jules Verne

The Original Illustrations of the 'Voyages Extraordinaires'. Link…

Nose Art and Pilot Portraits

'George Rarey's nose art appeared on all the aircraft of the 379th FS, as well as on many of the planes in the 377th and 378th. He painted a watercolor of each insignia on 12 x 18 inch paper, each insignia accompanied by a portrait of the pilot. For a time these paintings hung in the Nissan hut ready room at Wormingford. The nose art and portraits above have been scanned from the originals.'
'This past summer [2002] the EAA Museum in Oshkosh WI mounted a magnificent exhibit of Captain George Rarey's original artwork. The exhibit has been extended and will run through April of 2003 [note: it has now become a permanent installation at EAA].'

Unfortunately, Damon Rarey, the author of the site, passed away on December 15, 2002. The site only exists at the Wayback Machine where only some of the art is preserved. There is no mention of the artwork at the EAA museum website but I've sent them an email asking if it's still available from the library.

The illustrated journal is well worth reading too. [tearful spoiler inside]

Ingot Money

Animal money from Malay Peninsula, Kra Isthmus and Menam Valley Link… & Malacca Link…

AFL Tipping

Entourage for some inexplicable 'Rule' reasoning decided to 'Junk' the first four emails requesting my expected results re: the matches played in the current Australian Football League season tipping competition. As a result I was hopelessly behind (a non-submission of expected results, results in a lowest result score). Alerted by a fellow tipster concerned about my poor performance I contacted the tipping group leader and once again became part of the competition, but was at a severe disadvantage due to my lack of contribution. The season was hopelessly lost - go misere I thought. I decided to tip alphabetically, (e.g. Adelaide v West Coast Eagles, tip Adelaide) what's the chances? Well, surprisingly good actually. I've been the top tipster for two weeks in a row.

Nishiki

More things Japanese [via No-sword]. Link…

Isha

Japanese medical text. Link…

Rogue

Nicholas Blunt was a Counterfeit Crank; that is, he pretended to be a sick person who went by the name of Nicholas Genings. The man pictured here (in and out of disguise) was caught, and “whip’t at a cart’s tail” through London. An entry from 'Old England: A Pictorial Museum'. Link…

The Superior Works

A wonderfully told story about a guy's exciting find. C.A. Jewett's Patternmaking Chest. Link…

Paul Morphy

At a time when America was seen as a backwoods nation with little cultural history and even less intellectual impetus, at a time when chess was considered the exclusive property of a few European countries, at a time when the game was played successfully by a handful of men wizened by years, Paul Morphy, in the brief span of 19 months and with seemingly little effort, defeated conclusively every player he met. Link…

Josep Salvany

Black and white travel photography. I know nothing about the man at this moment. Link…