1909 Cover for Blanco y Negro, o'clock tea, Illustration by Spanish painter and illustrator Adolfo Lozano Sidro. 

Sphynxe by Joseph Urban (1903)

Ferdinand von Reznicek - Polterabend (1908)

Arms and Armour (1911) Auguste Demmin

A portrait of beloved professor Elias Scrimshaw. Elias is one of the stranger creatures from the species exchange program. An intelligent parasitic entity that can live in and manipulate a host's body for hundreds of years. Elias's species keep active only the bodily systems that are most needed, such as those involved in locomotion and eating. The unessential parts of the body are consumed, often Reducing the host species to what is essentially an animated husk which is kept preserved with a special cocktail of antibacterial fluids produced in Elias's strange asymmetric body. His preferred field of study deals with the biomechanics and life cycles of extraterrestrial parasites. His unique perspective and insight has offered great leaps in interstellar medicine by helping provide treatments for rare and often deadly parasitic infections. Not wanting to offend his host planet he took over the form of a stray cat which he assumed to be a local source of food before realizing it was in fact a common household pet. He has since expressed his deepest apologies for this mix up and has advised cat lovers to perhaps reconsider taking his class.

Details from Arthur Rackham’s illustration "And now they never meet in grove or green," (1908) from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

Late Victorian and Edwardian fashion in portraits by Giovanni Boldini (Italian, 1842-1931)

Using the moon for a bed. Earthology. 1901.

Internet Archive

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Some strange and unusual vintage diagrams.

Madonna of the Lilies, 1905 Alphonse Mucha

Among the flowers were lovely maidens calling to him with soft voices, from The Fairy of the Dawn for Andrew Lang's The Violet Fairy Book by Henry Justice Ford (1906)

Elisabeth F. Bonsall - Cats on book (1903)

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From turkey people to turkey robots to turkey costumes: my collection of vintage turkeys.

Winter (from Four Seasons 1900) / illustration by Alphonse Mucha.