1. A Pink Scottish Castle
Craigievar Castle, from this lovely Instagram account, touring the UK in a Morris Minor.
2. This 1930s LA Home For Sale comes with a key to famous High Tower elevator
Accessed by the famous High Tower elevator, the Streamline Moderne-ish residence contains four bedrooms and 4.5 baths within its 2,616 square feet. Up for grabs for the first time in 14 years is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 846 …built by Ralph C. Flewelling in 1933 for distinguished author and philosopher Benjamin Apthorp Gould Fuller.
Asking $1.7 million, found on Curbed.
3. The United States Capitol Subway System
The United States Capitol subway system was first built in 1909 to link the US Capitol to the Russell Senate Office Building. Initially Studebaker Electric motorcars were used to ferry passengers from one station to the other. These were replaced by an early monorail, complete with wicker coach, in 1912.
Comprised of three lines and six stations, the Capitol subway is usually off-limits to the general public, though it has featured on official tours of the Capitol Complex. Over the decades it’s gradually expanded, and essentially incorporates three subterranean people mover lines into a broader rapid transit system.
Found on Urban Ghosts Media.
4. More than half of the states of the U.S. are named after Native American tribes
Mind blowing fact of the day: 26 states as well as the meaning of their names according to the Nevada Dept. of Tourism and Cultural Affairs and various state websites:
Alabama – Named after the Alibamu tribe of Indians who were members of the Creek Confederacy. Literally, it means “clears the thicket.”
Kansas – Named after the Kansa Indians.
Kentucky – Means one of three things: meadow lands, cane and turkey lands, or dark and bloody ground.
Massachusetts – An Indian word meaning “about the big hill.”
Connecticut – From the expression “quinnitukg-ut” which means “at the long tidal river.”
Full list found on Thought Catalog. (Photo Edward Curtis: The Man who documented the first Americans).
5. Gay Marriage Has Existed Since the Byzantine Empire
Basil the First, who ruled the Byzantine Empire from 867-886, married not one but two men.
Also, Mabel Hampton attended a lesbian wedding in Central Park in the 1930s. Annie Hindle, the 19th century drag king, married at least two women (and one man). Michel de Montaigne (the 16th century French author), wrote that he watched as “two males married each other at Mass, with the same ceremonies we use for our marriages, taking Communion together, using the same nuptial Scripture, after which they slept and ate together.”
Rarely do we think of the medieval times when we consider the history of same-sex marriage. This interesting article does.
6. Maxwell’s Plum, (the Maxim’s of NYC)
The most 1980s restaurant ever, a riotously overdecorated Art Nouveau/Deco/Etc. pleasure palace that “reminded some of Maxim’s in Paris”. New York’s Plum did not survive the 80s and guess who bought the giant Tiffany’s ceiling when it closed down? Donald Trump himself (for $28K).
Found on Restaurant-ing Through History.
7. A Functional homemade steampunk computer
Made of solid pine wood and real antique barometers and trivets, by this artist.
8. Code Girls
The Untold Story of the Women Cryptographers Who Fought WWII at the Intersection of Language and Mathematics.
Found on Brain Pickings.
9. That Time Buddy Holly Called the Record Company to Ask for His Songs Back (and Recorded the Call)
Find the full call recording on Dangerous Minds.
10. The Fulgur Dream Car, 1958
The concept car was intended to show what cars in the year 2000 would look like. It was to be atomic powered, voice controlled, guided by radar, and use only two wheels balanced by gyroscopes when driven at over 150 kph.
Designed in 1958 by Robert Opron for Simca and first displayed at the 1959 Geneva Auto Show.
Found on Car Styling
11. Never leave home without your pearls (1920s)
Found on Pinterest.
12. An Important Archive of New York Quilt History Is Being Digitized
The American Folk Art Museum is digitizing the New York Quilt Project, an archive of over 6,000 quilts and their histories.
Full article found on Hyperallergic.
13. Monet’s Real-Life Pond in Japan
Nicknamed the Claude Monet pond, the Nemichi pond in Japan is the perfect incarnation of the Monet’s série des Nymphéas.
