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Author / MessyNessy

America’s First Planetarium is Hoarding the Ultimate Cabinet of Curiosities

I’ve caught the collector’s bug again. What is it this time? Antique astronomy tools. And I’m blaming it on the Adler Planetarium, the first in America and home to one of the world’s largest collections of historic scientific instruments. It all began when I stumbled upon their online collections, a dangerous rabbit hole for those of us…

Victorians at the Gym

Her raw enthusiasm is what really sells it for me. This photo comes from the exercise bible that was Dr. G. Zander’s Medico-mechanische Gymnastik, published in 1892. While it seemed almost certain that the gym craze was born in the 1980s along with the exercise videos of Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons, alas, it looks like our enthusiasm…

Gandalf’s London Pub that Launched a Thousand Ships

There’s something about mixing history, battered fish with chunky chips and a good ale that I can’t resist. I love English pubs and everything they stand for, but there are some that are particularly special; that have outlasted multiple eras, withstood wars and in one case … launched a thousand ships. Welcome to The Grapes,…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCLI)

1. Art Deco Details of LA’s Union Station Photographed by Dean Cheng, found on Flickr.   2. The Anonymous Key Window on 13th between Chestnut & Market You approach, and there is little to no dialogue. He knows what you want. You want keys made. This is all that is available Smaller than a food…

Abercrombie’s Abandoned New York Castle is For Sale

Abercrombie & Fitch– that slightly irritating brand for college kids whose preferred choice of footwear is flip flops all year long. But thanks to this historic house recently hitting the market, I’ve discovered there’s a slightly better story behind Abercrombie & Fitch.  David Thomas Abercrombie was a true adventurer. Born to Scottish immigrant parents, he first…

Pre-War Germany’s Buried Art Nouveau Magazine

A magazine like Jugend was never going to survive Nazi Germany. A monthly art periodical created in Munich in the late 19th century, it featured many Art Nouveau artists on its cover, and effectively launched the art movement in Germany. They called it Jugendstil, literally “youth style” in German. This period of art and design is still…
The Vault

Scotland’s Sleeping Castle

She’s been asleep for over half a century. Cocooned by a forest, half swallowed by nature’s encroaching fingers. A forgotten castle in the Scottish Highlands, waiting for its story to continue or find an ending. Such places do exist, you just have to be curious enough to find them. If you’ve read my road trip guide to Scotland, you’ll know that…

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Lost Cowboys of the Congo

We’ve met the dapper dandies of the Congo, but today let’s discover yet another subculture from the same corner of Africa, forgotten in the folds of time. In the 1950s, when the Congo still belonged to the Belgium colonialists and the capital of Kinshasa was known as Léopoldville, it was a difficult place to be a kid to say the…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCL)

1. This Sunken 200 year-old Swedish Cabin (for rent on Airbnb) In the early 1800s a man named Little Jon lived in this so called earth cabin (swe. ‘backstuga’) … In Sweden earthen cabins was common in the forests from the 1600s until the late 1800s and was inhabited by poor, old or sometimes criminal people… During the…
The Vault

Don’t Be a Tourist in Scotland: The MessyNessy Road Trip Guide

Scotland is the place you choose when the idea of another summer spent doing the same damn thing as everyone else starts to lose its appeal. It’s the place that you choose when you realise Scotland has landscapes that look like they’re from another planet and that you quite like the idea of escaping to another, very beautiful…

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Hidden beneath the surface layers of the internet, there’s a place where we keep our most secret addresses, untapped archives, creator’s inspiration,  collector’s guides, explorer’s manuals, obscure research and much more… And it’s made for our keyholders only!

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Mum & Dad named me Vanessa, but you can call me Nessy.

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