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Category / Obscure history

The Mysterious “Order of the Odd Fellows” that frankly, belongs in a Wes Anderson Movie

It’s a name that had me instantly transfixed, like something Wes Anderson had dreamt up for his next film. The Independent Order of the Odd Fellows – a secret society for … odd people? Why had I never heard of it? Never one to resist the pull of a promising rabbit hole, I would soon…

Why Are There Underground Jesuit Caves in Europe Filled with Egyptian and Islamic Art?

I‘ve just spent the last few hours trying to figure out why there’s a network of underground Jesuit caves filled with Egyptian, Islamic, Buddhist, Christian, pagan and secular art– and I’m stumped. This is a bit of a first for me and I’m reaching out to you to help explain the mystery… Okay so here’s what I…

Banner Ladies: The Human Billboards of Yesteryear

Whether you’ve traded your old sofa on Craigslist or advertised your business and its products to the world, we’ve all had to dabble in the art of promotion at one point or another. In my experience, creativity is key, and it doesn’t get much more creative than the advertising style of 19th century banner ladies,…

Terrifying Breast Enhancers of Yesteryear

Allow me to translate for you … BREAST FIRMING via fast, pressurised cold water affusion that showers the breast without getting wet, making the muscular fibers of the mammary glands contract, without touching the delicate tip. Easy to use, the water arrives under pressure through the metallic tube. A pleasureful and useful massage. For normal breasts. 125 Francs.…

Lost in Time: Groovy Afghanistan

A cautionary tale of a vibrant and thriving culture lost in time, these photographs collected on a community Facebook page in Afghanistan are likely to leave you in disbelief. The country we’re so often shown today is comparable to a broken medieval society, but not so long ago, the barren landscape was dotted with stylish…

The Unsolved Case of the Missing Perfume Heiress

It’s the best Agatha Christie novel that never was: the story of the disappearance of Manhattan perfume heiress, Dorothy Arnold. She was a woman about town and the belle of too many Uptown balls to count, but to this day, no one could ever figure out whether Dorothy was murdered, kidnapped, or stepped through some…

The Undertaker Village of Paris: Then & Now

It was a time when divorcées were only allowed to be buried at night, when the Arch of Triomphe wore a black mourning veil, and the business of death was booming in Paris. In fact, over one thousand undertakers worked together in their own veritable mini-city at the town’s edge, from coffin makers and casket…

Podcast du Jour: The Reclusive Royals that Lived in a Crumbling Jungle Palace

Some stories never leave us. They take up permanent residency in our brain, resurfacing for years to come in shades of daydreams and just-before-bed thoughts. “The Jungle Prince of Dehli” is one of those stories. Declarations of “How have we not heard about this?” and “Just when you think every story has been told…” made…

Love, Espionage and Alien Vibrations: Tales of a Soviet Music Machine

What do Lady Gaga and Lenin have in common? They’ve both played the theremin– the world’s first mass-produced electrical instrument, invented by the same guy who created a covert Soviet listening device that sat undetected for 7 years inside the American Embassy in Moscow (planted by Russian school children, no less). The extraordinary story of…

What a Relief Our Doctors Aren’t Bodysnatchers Anymore

This was just too interesting to save for Halloween. It all started when I stumbled upon a photograph of a something called a “mortsafe“– mort being the French word for death and safe implying there was something in need of protection from theft. Indeed, these graveyard oddities were once intended to deter body snatchers from stealing the…

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