Day 744 of posting pictures of elephants.

Source: Smithsonian Magazine

Robert Irwin (1928-2023)

♥

Image: Robert Irwin in his studio, 1970 [Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. © Steve Kahn / Artwork Robert Irwin / ARS, New York]

Born in Hamburg in May 1919, Lafrenz was the youngest of three sisters. Her father was an accountant, and her mother was a homemaker. The family “rarely discussed” politics, Lafrenz told Waage, but both of her parents eventually joined the Nazi Party. Lafrenz’s first brush with anti-Nazi politics arrived in the mid-1930s, when she studied under a teacher named Erna Stahl. “She passed her insight on to us through a pedagogical practice that aimed at inspiring independent thought,” Lafrenz recounted to Waage. “She woke me up at any rate. I had been a dreamer earlier.”

February 12th is #DarwinDay (Charles Darwin was born on 12 February 1809), and while Darwin himself rarely drew, his children doodled plenty - including on the backs of his manuscript pages! :)

Museu de l’Art Prohibit

See Ten Stunning Images From the Bird Photographer of the Year Awards

Utterly amazed that out of the many responses to this I took the time to read, not one - not one! - goes any further back than somewhere in the 20th century.

I am too sleepy atm to give this the full analysis I want to, but all of the division we see in the current political climate can be traced in a direct line back to the question of race. Racism was a fundamental building block of American society and culture from the get-go and it continues to be the key issue that explains everything happening today.

Every big event you can think of in American history has racism as a cause or a major factor. You can try to think of one that doesn't but I guarantee you will fail.

So here's the event I would nominate as the one that really began the division:

This is the point in time when the practice of slavery (which had existed on this soil from the moment settlers set foot in Jamestown) became specifically coded around race. I'm talking not just culturally, but legally. It set the precedent for absolutely everything that has happened since.

Native woman with children

Baracoa, Cuba, 1919

rayeshistory.com

Day 580 of posting pictures of elephants.

Source: Smithsonian Magazine/Frank af Petersens

Robert Irwin, Ocean Park, (oil on canvas), 1960-1961 [Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. © Robert Irwin / ARS, New York. Photo: © Philipp Scholz Rittermann]

"The next time a friend brings back a tacky souvenir gift from their vacation, consider this: Even the ancient Romans weren’t above bringing home the occasional tchotchke.

As the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) reports in a blog post, a joke-inscribed iron stylus unearthed during excavations in the English capital is now on view for the first time. The tool, dated to around 70 A.D., bears a message that roughly equates to the Latin version of 'I went to Rome and all I got you was this stylus.'

Per a more accurate translation by classicist and epigrapher Roger Tomlin, the inscription actually reads: “I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me. I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able [to give] as generously as the way is long [and] as my purse is empty”—in other words, the gift is cheap, but it is all the giver can (or wants to) buy on such a slim budget."

Colonial Williamsburg ad - “88-inch hips”

archived from my flickr account

Smithsonian Magazine, sometime in 2001? The outer edge (right side) of this page was folded to fit into a plastic page sleeve, since Smithsonian Magazine's pages are wider than the usual format.

Got some old magazine pages scanned at 600dpi, but I had to resize them to get under the 20mb size limit for files.

Now that I know more about fashion history, this concept is just extra-silly. Regardless, it’s eye-catching and memorable. 

Article about St. Patrick's Purgatory then and now, and purgatory in general.