Nineteenth-century London was a city of bustling crowds and dirty streets, shrouded in a thick later of fog and smoke. Yet it was against this backdrop that Charles Dickens chose to set his novels and from which he drew his inspiration. Indeed, at times London took on a role of its own, dominating the narrative [...]
Cards are arranged based on the Premiere League Week 15 (December 10-12,2011) Standings. * Of note – missing from this list are cards from the following football clubs; Manchester United, Queens Park Rangers and Wigan Athletic. Cigarette or tobacco cards began in the mid-19th century as premiums, enclosed in product packaging. They were usually issued [...]
Mounseer Nongtongpaw is based on a popular 1796 song of the same name by the entertainer Charles Dibdin. Dibdin’s original song mocks English and French stereotypes in five eight-line stanzas, particularly “John Bull’s” refusal to learn French. John Bull makes numerous inquiries to which he always receives the same response: “Monsieur, je vous n’entends pas” (“Monsieur, I don’t [...]
Some years ago I opened an old volume of a French traveller, one Henri Mouhot. In it I found a description of Angkor Wat with the most astonishing picture. The description was so rhapsodical that I put it down to traveller’s enthusiasm: the picture I attributed to the Gallic imagination. But on reading the book more carefully [...]
The Eiffel Tower…the colossus of iron is worthy of its position as the triumphal porch of the Exhibition of 1889. It is the great Edifice of the close of that 19th century whose discoveries mark it as the greatest of all epochs during which humanity has been working out its evolution. Half the world will come to admire the efforts which France has thought fit to make to show her vitality; and none will deny that the amount of talent displayed on the Champ de Mars [...]
Think you have what it took to get in to Harvard in 1869? From the History and Geography portion of the entrance exam, here’s an example of one of the questions standing in between you and a spot at one of America’s most prestigious universities: Supply the two names left blank in the following passage [...]
Where the River Shannon Flows – performed by the Victor Orchestra with music and lyrics by James I. Russell, tenor vocal by John McCormack. Recorded in Camden, New Jersey on January 2, 1913. Image credit.
This twenty three page book of alphabet rhymes was published in Windham, Connecticut in 1813, by Samuel Webb. For the letter A: “Great A stands for Adam’s administration and B for betraying the rights of the nation.” This rhyme refers to John Adams, the second president of the United States and a conservative Federalist who [...]
This set of images, from the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, mostly paired comparisons, attempt to show both the correct and incorrect postures for a variety of household tasks a housewife might engage in. (Photographs courtesy of Cornell University/Tehrkot Media)
Frank A. Rinehart, a commercial photographer in Omaha, Nebraska, was commissioned to photograph the 1898 Indian Congress, part of the Trans-Mississippi International Exposition. More than five hundred Native Americans from thirty-five tribes attended the conference, providing the gifted photographer and artist an opportunity to create a stunning visual document of Native American life and culture [...]
The Mena House Oberoi was initially a hunting lodge; it was a two story hut nicknamed the “Mud Hut.” It was built in 1869 for the Egyptian King Isma’il Pasha. Due to political matters in 1883, Isma’il sold the lodge to couple Frederick and Jessie Head as a private residence. The couple came across the building [...]
On March 14, 1896, the Sutro Baths were opened to the public as the world’s largest indoor swimming pool establishment. The baths were built on the sleepy western side of San Francisco by wealthy entrepreneur and former mayor of San Francisco (1894–1896), Adolph Sutro. The vast glass, iron, wood, and reinforced concrete structure was mostly hidden, and filled [...]
The Sydney International Exhibition opened the doors of its main building the ‘Garden Palace’ on 17 September 1879 and closed them seven months later. Many figures in colonial Sydney talked of the success of the huge project but the 1,045,898 visitors that passed through its gates were perhaps the most eloquent testimony to its triumph. [...]
The Industrial Revolution transformed Berlin during the 19th century and the city’s economy and population expanded dramatically. It would become the main rail hub and economic center of Germany and in 1871, Berlin became capital of the newly founded German Empire. At the end of World War I in 1918, a republic was proclaimed in Berlin. In 1920, the Greater Berlin Act incorporated dozens [...]
By the turn of the twentieth century, roller skates had become a popular way to pass the time. While the first roller skates had been invented in the 1700s, it wasn’t until 1863, when James Plimpton of Massachusetts invented the “rocking” skate, an improvement on the roller skate that allowed skaters to turn easily around corners. This [...]
Before Halloween was the holiday known for dressing up in costume and begging for candy (this practice did not become common until the 1940s and 50s), children in NYC often participated in what was called Ragamuffin Day. On Ragamuffin Day – which was Thanksgiving Day – children would dress themselves in rags and oversized, overdone [...]
