Posts tagged history
Letters from Vincent van Gogh to his brother, Theo.
The Winchester Mystery House was commissioned by widow Sarah Winchester, after a medium told her that if she did not continue building a house forever, she would die. The result is a strange 7 story mansion (reduced to four stories after the 1906 earthquake) with dead ends, traps, false fireplaces, and more:
She believed her only chance of a normal life was to build a house, and keep building it. If the house was never finished, no ghost could settle into it. The house contains many features that were utilized to trap or confuse spirits. There are doors that are small or lead nowhere and windows that look into other parts of the house. The mansion may be huge but there are only two mirrors in the whole place. This is because Sarah believed that ghosts were afraid of their own reflection.
The house has about 160 rooms, including 40 bedrooms, 2 ballrooms, 47 fireplaces, 10,000 window panes, 17 chimneys, 2 basements and 3 elevators.
Feb. 14, 1940: Workers at La Guardia Airport fought the elements to hold down a plane as a large storm brought seven inches of snow and winds gusting at 60 miles per hour to New York, hammering the eastern part of the country. Bus services were suspended and a swath of the West Side Highway closed, but the city seemed to prevail in “what appeared to be a winning effort to keep essential services functioning.” Photo: The New York Times
This masterpiece of Renaissance metalwork is signed on the browplate by Filippo Negroli, whose embossed armor was praised by sixteenth-century writers as “miraculous” and deserving “immortal merit.” Formed of one plate of steel and patinated to look like bronze, the bowl is raised in high relief with motifs inspired by classical art. The graceful mermaidlike siren forming the helmet’s comb holds a grimacing head of Medusa by the hair. The sides of the helmet are covered with acanthus scrolls inhabited by putti, a motif ultimately derived from ancient Roman sculpture and wall paintings. (x)
(Source: michellewilliamss)
DÜRER, Albrecht
Dream Vision
1525
Watercolour on paper, 30 x 43 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Gas masks for babies tested at an English hospital, 1940 (via Imgur)
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The Queen’s Android (via http://bit.ly/Krr44d)
“This famous android was a collaborative effort by two Germans. Clockmaker Peter Kintzing created the mechanism and joiner David Roentgen crafted the cabinet; the dress dates from the 19th century. Automatons were in circulation and aroused much curiosity. Roentgen probably sent the tympanum to the French court and Marie-Antoinette bought it in 1784. The queen, aware of its perfection and scientific interest, had it deposited in the Academy of Sciences cabinet in 1785. The tympanum is a musical instrument that plays eight tunes when the female android strikes the 46 strings with two little hammers. Tradition has it that she is a depiction of Marie-Antoinette.”
Roald Amundsen dancing with penguins, 1911. (x)
Cliff House (1896-1907) has had five major incarnations since its beginnings in 1858. In 1896, Adolph Sutro built a new Cliff House, a seven story Victorian Chateau, called by some “the Gingerbread Palace”, below his estate on the bluffs of Sutro Heights. Great throngs of San Franciscans arrived on steam trains, bicycles, carts and horse wagons on Sunday excursions.
The House burned to the ground on the evening of September 7, 1907.
A Girl Scout troop visits X-10, the secret city where the Atomic Bomb was built, in 1951.
Water-stained violin proven to be the one that played Nearer my God to Thee by Wallace Hartley as the Titanic sank is found. [x]
Russian Naval Officers, St. Petersburg (1900) via Denier Studio
Lake Delton Wisconsin’s “Wonder Spot” (1952), advertised as a place where “the laws of natural gravity seem to be repealed.”
