The World's fair, Paris 1900

(Image source here)

Already to begin with, the poster art is incredible

And this was the entryway (source here )

Above is rare footage, courtesy of YouTube, MetalDrake channel

and below is the WONDERFUL documentary series People's Century, (uploaded by Jack black, no copyright infringement intended)

In the first half of the documentary, there is wonderful footage from the world's fair and people who remembered it talk about it (and its magical moving footpaths) the footage is enchanting! the whole of  People's century is brilliant.

(Image source here )

 the Eiffel tower and its lights display (image source here)

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Witch trials

Witch trials are a particularly fascinating historical topic. We can look back now and think how un-scientific and ridiculous this must have been, this is the great thing about history, undoubtedly there will be things in our time that we find completely normal that future generations will look back on in wonder, asking why we bothered.

Below is a scene depicted in a pamphlet from the witch trials of Trier in Germany. They ran from 1581- 1593, and were one of the biggest witch trials in all of Europe.

Over 300 people died, but many guess that as many as 1000 people perished in these paranoid trials.

(Image source here)

And below is a monument in Vardo, Norway. in 1621, 91 people were killed. This memorial was opened in 2011. 

(Image source here)

What monuments to the pass shall our descendants erect for their ancestors I wonder

I freaking love history

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EDIT: LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY (a wonderful treasure trove!) had this graphic, a brilliant way to make history fun and relevant: So you've been accused of witchcraft?! (click to enlarge)

10 for today

A German Danse Macabre from the 18th century. Everyone is taking part in the 'Danse Macabre' (dance of death) from the lowliest peasant to the royal family. No one escapes the dance of death.

A clock from the German town of Augsburg, 1640. The figure is wearing a funerary wreath, and is holding an arrow, the tip of which displays the time.

News from Nowhere. William Morris is pretty kickass

Mihoko Ogaki site here brilliant sculptures releasing starlight from corporeal forms, so beautiful

Michal Trpak sculptures. Truly brilliant! More here at his wonderful website

BRILLIANT!!! See here! Edible delicious Momento Mori's! What more could you want in cake?

In Finnish, Northern lights are called “Lights of the Fox”. It comes from the old beliefs, that says the lights come from the fox tail hitting the snow.

Artist: Linda Piekäinen, Link on artist's page: https://www.facebook.com/artbypiekainen

Read more about the brilliant Beltane here we need more festivals and feast days, they should be brought back! Tom Hodgkinson, editor of the Idler and writer of some of my favourite books, champions the treasuring of old world customs and festivals. If I lived in the UK, I would never stop obscure festival-ing.

The strange tale of the green children of Woolpit, folklore? real? Decide for yourself here

And the dancing plague of 1518! What a brilliant piece of history this is! More here. History that seems to border on the edge of myth and myth that seems to have genuinely been a part of history, is one of my favourite spheres to exist in mentally!

What about you? :)

All pics from Tumblr unless linked to site

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Napoleon crossing the Alps

The Jacques-Louis David shows a strongly idealized view of the real crossing that Napoleon and his army made across the Alps through the Great St. Bernard Pass in May 1800. 

Napoleon was known to have crossed the Alps on the back of a 'sure-footed mule'.

Pic courtesy of wiki commons

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Medieval margins

Snail Joust!

Medieval margin-alia, WTF!

Those monks must have been bored!

I really love the idea of these being an in joke or early graffiti or something! Or perhaps daily life is such a departure from those times now we can't even see what these drawings even slightly might be touching on!

These all came from a Tumblr post pointing these out! Brilliant!

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The town that pretended to be mad

C.1200 in England, when King John was going to visit the nearby town of Nottinghamshire, the town of Gotham realised this would make them part of the King's Highway, which would introduce new taxes to them. At the time madness was considered contagious, so the whole town pretended to be mad to drive away the King's procession, and the new taxes too!

As learned from Terry Jones' medieval lives documentary series, episode one: The Peasant 

Pic from BBC

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Victorian cats

Above available here, how excitement!

Now for more Victorian cats:

I won't lie, if I had kittens I would probably do the same thing...

Pics from Pinterest

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Victorian hidden mother photos

In Victorian England, photo exposure times were up to ten minutes long

Mothers had to sit with their children, disguised (hilariously, obviously and somewhat creepily) as just a 'prop' to be able to hold the children for extensive times without distracting them

The result are some bizarrely-only-in-the-past-would-this-make-sense portraits

Here are a few more plus an article about them

Pics from Pinterest

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Boudica/ Boadicea

History! No subject is more divisive or awesome than you!

Boudica was the queen of the British Iceni tribe who fought the occupation of the Roman Empire

Read more here

Reason for this post: art inspired by history! 

and music, my favourite Enya tune here named after this icon

There is something so brilliantly majestic about old school classical style, it's so mighty and full of expression!\

I love all the interpretations of what she may have looked like:

Sister is doing well with hair like that in AD 60 roughly ;)

Pics from Wikipedia, and Google, haha yes, I just referenced Google, take that Uni!

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Rocket Cats and the Great Moon hoax

Early papers on siege warfare and tactics included plans to dispatch artillery in some VERY unusual ways

Read more here

 History is so awesomely strange! You can't fake Rocket Cats these days!

This manuscript is from 1584!

And now we come to.....

The great moon hoax read more here one of my favourite hoaxes of all time! Six articles from the 1830's claiming life on Mars! Brilliant! People are always arguing about how foolish people from the past were without realising we are fooled in our every day lives!

Enjoy

Pics from Wikipedia and Unique at Penn

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