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Category / Editor’s Picks

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

1. Paper Moon photos from the late 19th to early 20th centuries Connecticut College professor Chris Steiner went deep with his collection of over 1,500 “Paper Moon” photos from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. These photos, taken by professionals at carnivals and tourist attractions, are staples of early souvenir photography and provide an…

Art, But Make it Hot

The 18th century saw a decadent sexual revolution for the privileged, where the old-world pressures of church and state behaviour waned and the floodgates to libertine perversity opened. And Rococo art was this era’s erotic entertainment. Sexually charged painting and erotic literature were abundant, encouraged and consumed en-masse by all: from tacky prints and scratchy…

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

1. Abandoned Wine Cellars in Southern Italy These small buildings, which at first look may seem like small houses/caves (in fact it really looks like a small village), actually represented the core of the working and social life of Pietragalla people up to 50/60 years ago. Their purpose was linked to the production of wine;…

Behind the Mask of Lonesome Gal, Vintage Radio’s Virtual Girlfriend

“Sweetie, no matter what anyone says, I love you better than anybody in the whole world,” whispered Jean King over the nation’s airwaves. She was the virtual girlfriend to everyman during the golden age of radio in the late 1940s and developed a cult following as a sultry-voiced siren. Long before we could live out entire relationships…

Petition to Teach Kids about the Mad Adventures of Nellie Bly in History Class

When Nellie Bly got bored of writing about fashion and gardening, she went undercover as a patient in a mental asylum and faked insanity to expose the institutional abuse. When she read Jules Verne’s book Around the world in 80 Days, she attempted the fictional journey herself, and did it in 72 days, 6 hours,…

Art History’s Hidden Sexual Innuendo: The Weasel

Elevated to divine status, unicorns, lions, eagles and the occasional white rabbit are the loved and familiar characters in our romantic bestiaries, but the little weasel has never managed to secure such a position. Always wild, always wayward, it was the ideal material for folklore and fable. Early Macedonian culture saw them as a good…

Portraits of the Harlem Renaissance

Thanks to Carl Van Vechten, we have glorious colour photographs of all the leading Black intellectuals and artists of the 1930s to the 1960s. A wealthy white patron of Black art, Van Vechten was a controversial figure during his lifetime and remains so today. There is no denying, however, that he helped to bring world…

Before Pollock Saw Her Work, A Ukrainian Woman Pioneered Drip Painting

Here’s the myth: alcoholic brooding genius Jackson Pollock assesses a virgin canvas as it lays prone on the ground. Then he flings, hurls, splashes, and drips paint all over it, creating a vigorous new language of art – the drip technique. Life Magazine swooned, “Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?” The…

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

1. The White House’s Forgotten Vinyl Collection The White House built a vinyl record collection during the administrations of Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter of more than 2,000 donated albums. A time capsule of 1970s trends, it ranges from Pat Boone, Barry Manilow and John Denver to the Beatles, Isaac Hayes, The Clash and Elvis…

Stay at the Home of Victorian “Axe Murderess”

“Lizzie Borden took an axe And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one.” The murders of Andrew J. Borden and his wife Abby on the morning of August 4th, 1892, shocked the citizens of Fall River, Massachusetts and caused an international sensation when Mr. Borden’s 32…

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