Who was the 1920s Moulin Rouge Drag Queen that inspired Man Ray and Cocteau?

If you had lived in 1920s Paris, you would know who Barbette was. She was an icon of the night. A muse to the greats. A pioneer of queer. She might have built a career as a trapeze and high-rope performer in the United States, but made a name for themself in a very different…

The Mysterious Viscountess who Photographed the Unseen Sensuality of Victorians

She is one of the most prolific photographers of the Victorian era, but much of her life remains a mystery. Clementina Maude, also known as Lady Clementina Hawarden, took up photography in 1857 and in seven years shot more than 800 images, mostly sun-drenched portraits of her daughters, from her home in South Kensington, London,…

The First Parisian Skyscrapers were also a Notorious World War II Jewish Camp

A relatively austere low-income housing complex in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, the Cité de la Muette is not a remarkable collection of buildings. At first glance, it’s a council estate like any other, where residents go about their daily business seemingly unfazed by the history that lies both within its walls and beneath them.…

Why Did this Celebrated Surrealist Talent Get Cancelled?

In 1943, the New York art world was abuzz about a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The esteemed institution was hosting a show featuring one Morris Hirshfield, an immigrant who had found success as a tailor and then shoe designer before becoming a self-taught artist. His work was praised by the…

The Enduring Urban Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

Imagine literally stumbling across a colorful tile in the road with some version of the bizarre inscription “Toynbee idea in movie 2001 resurrect dead on planet Jupiter.” This seemingly incomprehensible mambo-jumbo has flummoxed lovers of urban legends for decades, since they first started appearing in the late 1980s in Philadelphia, spreading to other North American…

America’s Arabian City Explained

The largest collection of Moorish Revival architecture in America and the Western Hemisphere is where you’d least (or maybe most) expect it: Florida. A development project before it’s time, from the vision of 1920s aviation and motorcycling pioneer who was inspired by One Thousand and One Nights, Opa-locka in Miami-Dade County has street names like…

When Buffalo Bill was the Toast of Paris

Americans in Paris. Hemingway, Josephine Baker, Jim Morrison, James Baldwin, Nina Simone – these are the names and faces that typically come to mind when we think of those who left their mark on the French capital. But a bison-chasing cowboy doesn’t exactly fit the profile of the American intellectuals, writers, artists and musicians who…

More than 100 Years before 3D Printers, We had Photosculpture

One of the most exciting technological advances of recent decades is arguably the 3D printer, allowing creators to turn their wildest inventions into real-life products. But 3D printers are far from the first foray into producing realistic, 3-dimensional replicas. Photosculpture is a process dating back to the 19th century, using a series of photos taken…

The Legend of the Little Renault that Could

The French have arguably mastered the art of slow living in the name of joie de vivre, and perhaps nowhere else has this been best demonstrated than on the cobblestone streets of Montmartre, which for many years, played host to the world’s slowest race… The story goes that one New Year’s Eve in 1898, a…

Paris’ Missing Palace and the Making of the Louvre

In many ways, the history of the Louvre is the history of France, from the era of monarchs and the temples they built to their power to the radical ambitions of the French Revolution and Paris Commune. While many of the millions of tourists now flocking back to Paris will gawk at the architecture of…