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Category / People / Icons / Muses

Bowling with Mr. President beneath the White House

If you’ve ever seen The Big Lebowski, you’ll recognise this photograph of President Richard Nixon bowling, which infamously loomed over the Dudes tiki bar in the cult Coen brothers film. It is in fact a real photograph of Nixon and as I recently discovered, in 1969 the former President added his own secret one-lane bowling alley in…

The Chinese Salon Near the Summit of Mont Blanc

I have a single photograph for you today to let your imagination wander, as far as 4350 metres above sea level in fact. History Today published this intriguing photo of a lavishly decorated Chinese salon, perched at one of the highest points in all of Europe. Joseph Vallot was a famous French scientist who first made it…

The Book Rescuers

I came upon a small collection of photos in the LIFE Archives that show the sheer awesomeness of librarians. Pictured in 1951 drying out state library books damaged by fighting the Lewis Cass State Office Building fire in Lansing, as you can see, it was quite the undertaking… The fire was started by a 19 year-old…

The Heavy Metal Subculture of Botswana, Africa

The heavy metal cowboy get-ups sported by Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider and Mel Gibson in Mad Max are probably best left somewhere in the 1980s. But in Sub-Saharan Africa, the art of dressing like you’ve just stepped out of a Metallica concert is still very much alive. South African photographer Franck Marshall found the unlikely subculture in the…

An Insider’s Guide to the Unknown Kingdoms

One of my first ever published articles back when I was writing for a local magazine in London, was about a street in Notting Hill called Freston Road, which declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1977. Frestonia, essentially a community of squatters who had come together to secede from the UK after the local council threatened to evict them, had their…

The Man who Quit Society to Live in his Cabin

Meet Jack English, a 93-year-old legend who lives in a cabin isolated deep in the Ventana Wilderness. While on a hunting trip he learned that an old homestead in the Ventana Wilderness was being put up for auction by the estate of a childless heiress. He put a bid on the property and won. On…

Baroness Shraeder vs. Maria Von Trapp

When our favorite movies would end and the credits rolled, we couldn’t help but continue dreaming about the stories and the characters. Where filmmakers had skimmed over small details, we dove in and swam around in a sea of untold scenes. I’ve recently stumbled upon a literary treasure trove online called Timothy McSweeney’s Internet Tendency…

Preserved Moments of Historical Sass (Vol.4)

sassy: adjective \ˈsa-sē\ impudent, lively, spirited, vigorous, distinctively smart and stylish, showing no respect for people in authority, saucy, pert, confident, chic. Students from five states smile through the gate of Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, March 1939. Photograph by Anthony Stewart from National Geographic Two Couples in Bathing Outfits c.1934 from Letters of Vintage …

Marilyn Monroe’s Diet Plan, Lipsticks and her Most Intimate Belongings are Up for Auction

You only have to glance at the range of items in the upcoming sale of the largest collection of Marilyn Monroe ephemera ever offered at auction, to see that her fingerprint can still transform the most prosaic of objects more than 50 years after her tragic death. While it wouldn’t be a true Marilyn Monroe auction without her most iconic dresses, diamonds…

Uncovering the Ghost of an Iconic Department Store, the “Bloomingdales” of Paris

For ten years, one of the world’s most iconic and historic department stores sat empty along the banks of the Seine in Paris; an imposing ghostly shell of former retail splendour, a giant sleeping elephant in the room occupying prime real estate in the heart of the city. When I heard that renovation works were…

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