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The Illustrated Circus World, 1934
While doing some thesis-related research on the Circus Historical Society online archive this evening, I came across a digitized copy of this marvelous 1934 Illustrated Circus World. It’s really an...
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Rare 19th century eight-legged walking doll
This very rare doll from the early nineteenth century demonstrates a very innovative design for its day: a spoked wheel of legs which allow the doll to ‘walk’ when it is pushed across the floor. The...
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Katzenklavier: The Cat-Piano
When I was a kid, my weird and wonderful mother used to amuse us by picking up the cat and pretending to play it like a bagpipe, using its tail as a mouthpiece. Her improvised feline instrument has,...
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WHAT IS THIS THING? Mystery museum object #1
WHAT IS THIS THING? Inspired by a mystery object tweeted by one of my favorite websites, Collectors Weekly, I’ve decided to make a little game out of some of my own ridiculously interesting MYSTERY...
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WHAT IS THIS THING? Mystery museum object #2
WHAT IS THIS THING? Inspired by a mystery object tweeted by one of my favorite websites, Collectors Weekly, I’ve decided to make a little game out of some of my own ridiculously interesting MYSTERY...
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WHAT IS THIS THING? Mystery museum object #3
WHAT IS THIS THING? Inspired by a mystery object tweeted by one of my favorite websites, Collectors Weekly, I’ve decided to make a little game out of some of my own ridiculously interesting MYSTERY...
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WHAT IS THIS THING? Mystery museum object #4
WHAT IS THIS THING? Inspired by a mystery object tweeted by one of my favorite websites, Collectors Weekly, I’ve decided to make a little game out of some of my own ridiculously interesting MYSTERY...
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WHAT IS THIS THING? Mystery museum object #5
WHAT IS THIS THING? Inspired by a mystery object tweeted by one of my favorite websites, Collectors Weekly, I’ve decided to make a little game out of some of my own ridiculously interesting MYSTERY...
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Stripping it off and ripping it off: Christian Thompson’s Emotional Striptease
Christian Thompson is a fantastic artist from Melbourne, Australia, who I’ve been lucky enough to make acquaintance with at the University of Oxford. Christian is just finishing his doctorate in fine...
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Preserved loaf of bread discovered at Pompeii
This is the ultimate piece of toast: a loaf of bread made in the first century AD, which was discovered at Pompeii, preserved for centuries in the volcanic ashes of Mount Vesuvius. The markings visible...
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Tipu’s Tiger
Tipu’s (or Tippoo’s) Tiger is a life-sized wooden mechanical organ made around 1793, depicting a tiger mauling a man in European clothing. When the crank is turned, a hidden mechanism causes the man’s...
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Two-faced memento mori ring, 17th century
This strange and beautiful memento mori ring is from the collection of the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford. Showing a woman’s(?) face on one side and an enamelled skull on the other, this...
View ArticleThree ridiculously interesting photos for art history nerds
These three intriguing photographs have no real relationship with one another, except that each image reveals a little bit of the hidden history of art. Read on for more about these remarkable images....
View ArticleCleaning the elephant skin
My last post on the inflatable skins in James Lomax’s Untitled (Me and My Friend) (2011) reminded me of this ridiculously interesting series of photographs from the archives of the American Museum of...
View ArticleWWII Parachute Crash Test Dummies
I know very little about these wonderful objects, but Obsolete, a combination antiques shop and contemporary art gallery in Venice, California, claims that they are World War Two parachute crash test...
View ArticleAbandoned suitcases of insane asylum patients
These fascinating images show abandoned suitcases which belonged to patients who were residents of the Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane between the 1910s and early 1960s. The institution stored...
View ArticleRare eight-legged doll
This very rare doll from the early nineteenth century demonstrates a very innovative design for its day: a wheel of legs which allow the doll to ‘walk’ when it is pushed across the floor. The doll...
View ArticleKatzenklavier: The Cat-Piano
When I was a kid, my weird and wonderful mother used to amuse us by picking up the cat and pretending to play it like a bagpipe, using its tail as a mouthpiece. Her improvised feline instrument has,...
View ArticleMarie Antoinette lost her shoe and then her head
The shoe that Marie Antoinette lost on her way to the guillotine.
View ArticleMagic hat covered in decayed teeth
A 19th century hat belonging to an itinerant London street dentist, covered with 88 decayed teeth from his former patients
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