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Category / Editor’s Picks

This Flapper’s Dollhouse Cost More than Most People’s Homes

Of her most famous film, Jazz Age icon F. Scott Fitzgerald proclaimed, “I was the spark that lit up Flaming Youth, Colleen Moore was the torch.” She was a chief rival of Clara Bow and became one of the highest-paid and most fashionable movie stars in 1920s Hollywood. Colleen Moore had two passions: movies and dolls. Over…

For over 40 Years, This Guy Photographed the Same Buildings as he Watched them Decline

We all see familiar buildings in our neighbourhoods change over the years, but what if you photographed them from the exact same spot, documenting them over a time span of over four decades? That’s exactly what Chilean-born photographer Camilo José Vergara did. Focusing on the poorest and most segregated communities in urban America, Camilo returned…

Behind the Photograph: A Tale of Two Hollywood Lovers

The Photograph Rudolph Valentino & Natacha Rambova photographed outside the Plaza Athénée Hotel in Paris during their 1923 European honeymoon tour – Natacha is wearing a most fashionable automobile outfit by renowned Parisian couturier Paul Poiret. The Story Many considered the Hollywood couple to be “lavender lovers,” a name given to a male-female pair who marry for…

Stitching the History of West African Flags

To understand recent Ghanaian history, flags are not a bad place to start. Ghana was under colonial rule by Britain until 1957, but the Portuguese first arrived on the Gold Coast in the 15th century, starting a centuries-long trade industry in goods, arms and slaves. Fabric was a common manufactured material that Europeans brought to…

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

Hi there! If you’re not subscribed to our newsletter, you might have been wondering why we skipped a week of 13 Things recently. You’ll notice the website might be a little quieter than usual over the next few weeks as I dedicate the month of August to making a real crack at finishing our next…

The Queen has an Eye-Watering Collection of Miniature Things

Today on the internet, I casually wandered into the Royal Collection online archives and discovered that the English royal family is just as nuts as I am about teeny tiny things. With over 3,000 miniatures, the history of collecting goes back as far as the Tudor times when Henry VIII starting acquiring them and miniaturists began holding…

Here’s What Japanese Art Looked Like in the Aftermath of the Atomic Bombs

The cultural shift between pre and post-WWII world Japan was complicated and often divisive, but if you were photographer Eikoh Hosoe, that tension became fuel for creative expression that turned into a surrealist dreamworld – or nightmare, depending on who you asked. The Japanese artist’s works mirrored the state of a shell-shocked country in the…

Decline of the ‘Dirty Dancing’ Dream

We’ve made a few trips to explore the abandoned resorts of the Borscht Belt of New York. Once places like Grossinger’s, the Concord, Kutscher’s and the Pines, were the epitome of a swanky summer holiday for New Yorkers. All through the Catskills were dozens of all-inclusive resorts, glitzy enough to entice the mostly Jewish, upper-middle…

The Depraved Dance Marathons of the 1930s You Didn’t Know About

In a stifling gymnasium in Anywhere, America dozens of couples shuffle around the cramped space clinging on to each other for dear life. Spectators in stands cheer on their favourite couples, watching their aching legs barely hold up their exhausted bodies. Some have mastered the art of sleeping on their partners shoulders; as long as…

Overnight at Harry Potter University

If you ever find yourself in Oxford, England in search of a bed for the night, you might consider booking a room at the student dorm accommodation of Christ Church College, University of Oxford for a real-life Harry Potter experience. The university not only provides accommodation over the summer months, but your stay comes with an all…

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