Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria of Great Britain (r. 1837-1901) was one of the most loved of all Britain's monarchs. Her longevity, devotion to her role as figurehead of an empire, and recovery from the death of her beloved husband Prince Albert won her a unique status as the ever-present symbol of 19th-century Britain, an era of tremendous political, industrial, and social changes. The last of the British Hanoverian monarchs, Victoria reigned for 63 years. She weathered the storms of life – outliving ...

The Russian Empire Pre-Revolution: Recreating the Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record

His ultimate goal was to educate the schoolchildren of Russia with his "optical color projections" of history.Curated/Reviewed by Matthew A. McIntoshPublic HistorianBrewminateIntroductionThe photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944) offer a vivid portrait of a lost world—the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I and the coming revolution. His subjects ranged from the medieval churches and monasteries of old Russia, to the railroads and factories of an emerging industr...

The Russian Empire Pre-Revolution: Recreating the Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record

His ultimate goal was to educate the schoolchildren of Russia with his "optical color projections" of history.Curated/Reviewed by Matthew A. McIntoshPublic HistorianBrewminateIntroductionThe photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944) offer a vivid portrait of a lost world—the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I and the coming revolution. His subjects ranged from the medieval churches and monasteries of old Russia, to the railroads and factories of an emerging industr...

Dickens Fellowship Annual Conference

updated:  Wednesday, January 11, 2023 - 4:55pm full name / name of organization:  Emily Bell / Dickens Fellowship contact email:  E.J.L.Bell@leeds.ac.uk categories (up to 5):  cultural studies and historical approaches graduate conferences international conferences popular culture victorian ...

Facts About Marcus Aurelius - Life and Reign

One of Rome’s most famous rulers, the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus is widely considered a model stoic, an ideal representative of virtue and manliness. Thus, it may come as a shock to many to discover that Marcus Aurelius, the author of the famous Meditations, spent nearly all his reign on the battlefield. Conflict with Parthia in the east, wars on the Rhine and the Danube in the north, and a violent uprising by one of his governors, threatened to plunge Rome into chaos. On t...

Understanding Renaissance Master Raphael through 5 Key Artworks - Artsy

HomeSearchHomeMuseumsArtistsArticlesShowsArt FairsGalleriesAuctionsHomeArtworksAuctionsGalleriesFairsMagazineMoreArtworksAuctionsGalleriesFairsMagazineArtistsShowsMuseumsArtsy for GalleriesLog inSign upArtUnderstanding Renaissance Master Raphael through 5 Key ArtworksAlina CohenApr 16, 2019 11:42 amRaphael, Self-portrait, ca. 1506. Image via Wikimedia Commons.RaphaelThe Prophets Hosea and Jonah, ca. 1510National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.Known for his passionate love affairs, good looks,...

Some brief reflections on canon and genius

Among the many bees in my professional bonnet is the issue of canon formation: how some works become singled out as being of particular value and worthy of preservation and perpetuation through subsequent generations. The mechanisms of canon formations are usually shared by whatever type of art we are talking about, whether it is pictorial art, the art of writing, or the art of music. There are several factors that can contribute to a work's entry into a given canon, and there are also severa...

Battles of the Sexes - Duels between Women and Men in 1400s *Fechtbücher*

Collections / ImagesBattles of the Sexes: Duels between Women and Men in 1400s Fechtbücher Illustration from a 1467 manuscript of Hans Talhoffer's fight book. Around the year 1430, illustrated German-language manuscripts began to depict the art of Zweikampf: dueling, or, literally, a battle of two. Known as "fight books" (Fechtbücher), these manuals developed out of a tradition founded by the semi-mythic Johannes Liechtenauer, a fencing instructor whose biography remains almost completel...

1917 - the film

FQ -1917SourceURL: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/new-trailer-1917-shows-world-war-i-youve-never-seen-70671 Task and Purpose Security, Watch it here.  It looks like World War I is finally getting the major motion picture treatment it deserves, and it's about damn time. The new trailer for 1917 just dropped, and it's two minutes of chaos, fear, and confusion as we follow soldiers on the Western Front through trenches, underground tunnels,...

Eerie Story of the Chelsea Hotel - Last Bohemian Residents

As their new documentary about New York’s Chelsea Hotel is released, directors Amélie van Elmbt and Maya Duverdier talk about gentrification and why "underground independence is so important for our society" January 20, 2023 While some establishments dream of having five stars, the Chelsea Hotel hosted a far greater number. In its heyday, the building, located on 23rd street in New York City, was the temporary home for musicians like Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Jimi Hendrix, Bob ...

sugar - madeira - and the canaries

Today's encore selection -- from Sugar: The World Corrupted by James Walvin. Sugar followed gold and silver as the most important commodity in the New World. Sugar had long been a small-scale luxury, limited by the lack of the right soil and climate for growing sugar cane. That changed dramatically with the discovery of the New World, leading to the establishment of large-scale plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean. But the tragedy of dependence on African slaves, as well as the pattern of ...

Contest or Conquest by Daniel Immerwahr

Discussed in this essay:Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America, by Pekka Hämäläinen. Liveright. 576 pages. $40.In the 1630s, the powerful Pequot Confederacy of southern New England found itself beset by enemies. English settlers had recently arrived and were joining with the Pequots’ Indigenous rivals. Soon, tensions over the fur and wampum trade led to war. The fighting reached a climax when the British and their allies besieged a Pequot fort and set it aflame, hunting down...

Interacting with Print

Book Title: Interacting with Print: Elements of Reading in the Era of Print SaturationAbout this ebook A thorough rethinking of a field deserves to take a shape that is in itself new. Interacting with Printdelivers on this premise, reworking the history of print through a unique effort in authorial collaboration. The book itself is not a typical monograph—rather, it is a "multigraph," the collective work of twenty-two scholars who together have assembled an alphabetically arranged tour of ...

Biggest Turkey in Game Show History

By Adam Nedeff, Researcher for the National Archives of Game Show History You bring the stuffing, the cranberry sauce, and the pumpkin pie. For Thanksgiving, we’ll bring you the biggest turkey in the history of game shows: You’re in the Picture By 1961, Jackie Gleason was already a bona fide show business legend. His Cavalcade of Stars had made him one of the first superstars in the young medium of television. The classic 39-episode season of The Honeymooners had been icing on the cake....

Tudors and Stuarts

Our Tote Bags, Ourselves

In the 1880s, a newspaper owner named Jasper Meek was looking out the window of his print shop in Coshocton, Ohio, when he saw a young girl drop her school books. As the story now goes, the sight inspired him to fashion a burlap bag in which people could carry books. But Meek also had an entrepreneurial mind, and he figured out a way to maximize his profit: he’d charge local businesses to print their names on the bags, which then served as tiny billboards as they were carried across town. ...

Alam - on the Fleeting Nature of Symbols and Memory set in Israel-occupied Palestine

Share this Article What does a flag symbolize? Who decides the meaning conferred upon a flag as a nation’s symbol? Is its meaning confined to the meaning given to the colors or symbols that characterize it? Does its meaning alter based on where a flag is flown? Alam (2022), which translates to flag, does not raise these questions directly but stimulates its viewers to formulate questions of similar nature on what and what not constitutes the underlying meaning and value of similar nation...

Reformation and Repression under Bishop Brionnet of Meaux

As the Protestant Reformation emerged in France in the early 16th century, the city of Meaux became one of the first centers of controversy. Bishop Guillaume Briçonnet II undertook a campaign to reform the Catholic Church from within and called Lefèvre d'Étaples, a leading figure in French humanism, to lead missionary efforts. Soon they found themselves at odds with the Catholic hierarchy. Bishop Guillaume Briçonnet Unkno...

Norfolk Fends off Napoleon

Caricature of Napoleon hearing the news of Trafalgar by Gilray            Fears of a French invasion were not new to late-eighteenth century Englishmen. There had been at least three credible invasion threats between 1744 and 1783, and various steps to counter invasion had been taken. How likely Norfolk was as a main target for invasion is debatable. However, the sea crossing from northern France Belgium the French-dominated Netherlands was certainly short enough for a serious French raid (b...

The Suspicious Smell of Witchcraft

This post is part of the Monster Carnival 2022: Why Early Modern History Matters Now. Jordan Grahamgraduated from Cardiff University with a BA in History in the summer of 2022. Jordan Graham Over the last few years it is likely that you or someone you know has had Covid-19. One of the common side of effects has been loss of taste or smell, so much so that often when someone tells you they had Covid it may be one of the questions you ask. Could you smell anything? Could you taste anything? Whi...

Plague, Religion, and Medicine in Seventeenth-Century England

This post is part of the Monster Carnival 2022 – Why Early Modern History Matters Now. Lisa Olson is a librarian and recent graduate of the Master of Information program at Dalhousie University where she completed a thesis focussed on plague publications in seventeenth-century England. Find her on Twitter @Olson_Bochord.Lisa OlsonThree years since the start of the pandemic seems like an apposite time to see what lessons we can learn about the experience from a closer examination of early mode...

How House of the Dragon Mirrors The Anarchy in England

Now that the hugely successful first season of HBO’s House of the Dragon has aired, it is safe for us to do an analysis of how much and how closely the events and characters mirrored those of actual history. It is no secret that George R.R. Martin drew inspiration for some of his storylines for the smash hit Game of Thrones from historic events, but what about the spin off, House of the Dragon ? Well, at a Comic-Con panel in 2022, Martin explained how G.O.T. had been loosely based around t...

Chronological Table on the History of Incunabula | Incunabula

Chronological Table on the History of Incunabula 2nd half of 4th century The form of books shifted from scroll to codex. In Europe, Coptic binding came into use. 2nd half of 7th century Celtic manuscripts, The Book of Durrow and The Lindisfarne Gospels were produced. End of 8th century The Carolingian script started to be used. Around this time, raised band binding came into use. 12th century Paper was first brought to Europe. Around this time, Gothic type began to be used. ...

Renaissance science – XLVI

One area that is not usually counted among the sciences is cryptography, lying as it does, in this day and age, between, logic, mathematics, and informatics. In earlier times it is perhaps best viewed as a part of logic. Perhaps surprisingly, cryptography underwent a major development during the Renaissance provoked by an earlier development in the hands of Islamicate scholars.Cryptography means literally hidden writing, coming from the Greek kryptos meaning hidden and graphiameaning write, e...

In Praise of Tears - A Short Intellectual History

Written by Georgia Smith"In Praise of Tears  Pleurer / crying  The amorous subject has a particular propensity to cry; the functioning and appearance of tears in this subject.  …  Who will write the history of tears? In which societies, in which periods have we wept? Since when is it that men (and not women) no longer cry? Why was ‘sensibility’, at a certain moment, transformed into ‘sentimentality’?" Roland Barthes, A Lover’s Discourse (1978)  For Barthes "the amorous body is doubled by a hi...