July - 2019

The Final Days of Van Gogh in Auvers

On the evening of July 27, 1890, Vincent van Gogh stumbled back to his tiny room at the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise, just north of Paris. When the innkeeper looked in on the artist, alarmed by his groans, he found van Gogh doubled over in pain from a gunshot wound to the chest. The innkeeper, Ravoux, summoned the village doctor and van Gogh requested that his personal doctor, Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, come as well. After examining the patient, the doctors concurred tha

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The Silent Parade of 1917

New York City had never seen anything quite like it. On July 28, 1917, between the buildings and businesses of Fifth Avenue, roughly 10,000 black citizens made their way down the street. Handwritten signs protesting racial discrimination and violence emerged from the sea of marchers; police mingled with 20,000 onlookers, ready to intervene at the first sign of trouble. Whose defence they might come to was in question. Known as the Silent Parade, the event was the first of its

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This Is What A Hero Looks Like. The Eye Surgeon That Restored Vision For Thousands. For Free.

“What I really believe is life is very short and what you can do in that period you must do it can change the life of their family” an inspirational quote by one of the best eye surgeons in the world Dr. Sanduk Ruit. Sanduk Ruit is a Nepali miracle eye doctor who has restored the sight of more than 120,000 people (possibly more than any eye surgeons) through small-incision cataract surgery across the world especially in Africa and Asia. According to the World Health Organisat

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What Could Aldous Huxley See While On Acid?

Disconcertingly, given the detailed discussions of art and the visual world in The Doors Of Perception, Aldous Huxley was almost blind. Or, at least, some people said he was. Like much else in Huxley's life, the state of his vision was a source of considerable controversy and speculation. The known facts are these: in 1911, while this scion of one of the UK's foremost intellectual families was studying at Eton, he suffered from a very unpleasant illness called keratatis,

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Diane Arbus - A Brief Yet Brilliant Career

Diane Arbus was born on March 14, 1923, in New York City. An artistic youth, she learned photography from her husband, actor Allan Arbus. Together, they found success with fashion work, but Diane soon branched out on her own. Her raw, unusual images of the people she saw while living in New York created a unique and interesting portrayal of the city. She committed suicide in New York City in 1971. Born Diane Nemerov on March 14, 1923, in New York City, Diane Arbus was o

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17-Year-Old Stanley Kubrick’s Photos Of 1940s New York Prove That He Was Born To Be Behind The Lens

Before Stanley Kubrick directed arguably some of the best movies ever made like "2001: Space Odyssey" or "The Shining," he was a simple teenager in New York looking for a job. But even then, when the 17-year-old got his hands on a photo camera, he couldn't hide the talent within. Here you'll find a collection of his photos of New York from 1945 to 1950, when he was working in the Look magazine. During that time Stanley got many insights into what makes a photograph wor

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8 Facts About Carl Jung

Perhaps second only to Sigmund Freud—though he may have been reticent to admit it—Carl Jung (1875-1961) was a renowned Swiss psychologist who pioneered the idea of exploring a person’s interior life to better understand their behaviors. If you’ve ever been labeled an extrovert or introvert, you can thank Jung for that. Have a look at our analysis of this fascinating thinker. 1. HE WAS A LONER AS A CHILD. Born to Paul and Emilie Jung on July 26, 1875 in Kesswil, Switzerland

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The unsolved mystery of Amelia Earhart's last flight

On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart flew toward Howland Island, one of the last stops on her attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Nearing the tiny Pacific atoll, she radioed the Itasca, a United States Coast Guard cutter anchored off Howland’s coast, to ask it to guide her onto land with radio signals. “KHAQQ (the Lockheed Electra 10E’s call sign) calling Itasca: We must be on you but cannot see you ... gas is running low ... been unable to reach you by radio ... we are flyi

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When an 11-year-old boy led Hiram Bingham to Machu Picchu in 1911

Machu Picchu is an Inca citadel built in the 15th century. Known worldwide, the citadel was reportedly built as a home for the Emperor Pachacuti, and was abandoned by the Incas a century later when the Spanish conquest began. Located high in the Andes Mountains in Peru, it was built in the classical Inca style, with polished stone walls. This UNESCO World Heritage Site was always known by the local population and became known to the Spaniards during their colonial period.

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The Glory of Sapeurism and the Congo Dandies

The Republic of Congo and its neighbor the Democratic Republic of Congo are not often associated with the latest international fashion trends. In recent years however the bold styles of the residents of Brazzaville and Kinshasa have shown that fashion isn’t all about reputation. Standing out among shantytowns that have in recent history been scarred by civil wars and poverty, Sapeurism is a subculture that is promoting a new image for the two African nations. The word S

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This Is Why We All Should Love Sister Rosetta Tharpe

The “British Invasion” as a historical phenomenon, has achieved a status almost like that of Paul Revere’s ride, a watershed moment condensed to a singular image: The Stones, or—if you’re more inclined, The Beatles—step onto the tarmac, young girls scream, cameras flash, microphones jostle… suits abound. We remember the scenery, and the haircuts, but the history disappears. The all important context when the British landed in the mid sixties has to do with another invasion at

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A Drawing Of A Dick By Andy Warhol Is On The Moon.

This week is the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, and though we have yet to send an artist into space (photographer Michael Najjar is apparently still training to become the first), there is a tiny art museum on the moon, and it’s been there since November 1969, four months after man set foot on the lunar service, and in the afterglow of that amazing summer. Don’t expect a walkable gallery, however. The museum is actually a ceramic wafer the size of a postage stamp, but

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The Final Day Of The Romanov Family

The mounting pressures of World War I, combined with years of injustice, toppled the rule of Tsar Nicholas II in March 1917. Forced to abdicate, he was replaced by a Provisional Government committed to continuing the war. Increasing losses at the front and the fear of a German advance on Moscow eroded what little support remained for the war and undermined the Provisional Government's authority. Capitalising on this situation, the Germans secretly transported the exiled Vl

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Why Welsh Archers Were The Most Feared In Europe

North Wales exploded into open revolt against an exploitative English elite. Countless towns were laid waste, their populations massacred. Henry IV’s retaliatory expedition was humiliated and sent packing back to England. Conwy Castle — that glittering jewel of royal might — was captured. And a new Prince of Wales was declared: Owain Glyndefrdwy, or Owain Glyndwr for short. Now in 1401, Glyndwr moved on. Huge numbers flocked to his banner raised in the mountains of west

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The Stones And The True Story Of Exile On Main St

"Mick needs to know what he's going to do tomorrow," says Richards, his voice slurring into a laugh. "Me, I'm just happy to wake up and see who's hanging around. Mick's rock, I'm roll." On Exile on Main St, though, Jagger, for once, rolled with Richards. So, too, did everyone else involved, from Jimmy Miller, the producer, to Marshall Chess, the young Atlantic Records executive, to the rest of the group and their extended retinue of session players, studio technicians a

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The Contrasts Between Two Worlds Photographed by Uğur Gallen

Uğur Gallen was born and lives in Turkey, and for years has seen neighbouring Syria plunged into a civil war that has affected the lives of millions of people. He is bothered by the inequality and contrasts in the way of life of citizens living close to each other, but practically living in different worlds. It’s hard to be immune to the power of a good photo. This is the media used by Gallen to evidence the striking differences between contrasting worlds of developed countri

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The Ingenious Poem, “The Chaos,” Documents 800 Irregularities in English Spelling and Pronunciation

In 1920, Dutch writer and traveler Gerard Nolst Trenité, also known as Charivarius, published a textbook called Drop Your Foreign Accent: engelsche uitspraakoefeningen. In the appendix, he included a poem titled “The Chaos,” a virtuoso, tongue-twisting demonstration of somewhere around 800 irregularities in English spelling and pronunciation. No one now remembers the textbook, and the poem might have disappeared too were it not for efforts of the Simplified Spelling Society,

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Beautiful HandColoured Japanese Flowers Created by the Pioneering Photographer Ogawa Kazumasa (1896)

Ogawa Kazumasa lived from the 1860s to almost the 1930s, surely one of the most fascinating 70-year stretches in Japanese history. Ogawa's homeland "opened" to the world when he was a boy, and for the rest of his life he bore witness to the sometimes beautiful, sometimes strange, sometimes exhilarating results of a once-isolated culture assimilating seemingly everything foreign — art, technology, customs — all at once. Naturally he picked up a camera to document it all, and h

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The Bauhaus Bookshelf: Download Original Bauhaus Books, Journals, Manifestos & Ads

The Bauhaus, Barry Bergdoll writes in the New York Times of the German design school founded a century ago last month, "lasted just 14 years before the Nazis shut it down. And yet in that time it proved a magnet for much that was new and experimental in art, design and architecture — and for decades after, its legacy played an outsize role in changing the physical appearance of the daily world, in everything from book design to household lighting to lightweight furniture." Ce

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The Life & Music of Fela Kuti: Radical Nigerian Bandleader, Political Hero, and Creator of Afrobeat

One cannot write about Nigerian bandleader, saxophonist, and founder of the Afrobeat sound, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, with any degree of objectivity, whatever that might mean. Because hearing him could count as one of the greatest musical eye-openers of your life: a feeling of pure elation that won't go away. Afrobeat fandom in many countries does not have to personally reckon with the history from which Fela and his band emerged—a Nigeria wracked in the 60s by a military coup, ci

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The History of 'That's All Right Mama'

This stonker of a song was written by Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, and originally recorded by him in Chicago on September 6, 1946, as “That’s All Right“. Some of the lyrics are traditional blues verses first recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1926. Crudup’s recording was released as a single on RCA Victor 20-2205, but was less successful than some of his previous recordings. At the same session, he recorded a virtually identical tune with different lyrics, “I Don’t Know It“

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Meet Emma Willard, the First Female Map Maker in the U.S., and Her Brilliantly Inventive Maps

In 1851, three years after war with Mexico had halved that country and expanded U.S. territory into what would become several new states, Emma Willard, the nation’s first female mapmaker, created the “Chronographer of Ancient History” above, a visual representation to “teach students about the shape of historical time,” writes Rebecca Onion at Slate. The Chronographer is a “more specialised offshoot of Willard’s master Temple of Time, which tackled all of history”—or all six

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A Documentary Introduction to Nick Drake, Whose Songs Came Into the World 50 Years Ago This Week

"All smokers will recognise the meaning of the title — it refers to five leaves left near the end of a packet of cigarette papers. It sounds poetic and so does composer, singer, and guitarist Nick Drake. His debut album for Island is interesting." There, in its entirety, is Melody Maker's review of Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left, which came out fifty years ago today. Drake now stands in music history as something of a doomed romantic hero, an artist who crafted a few dozen str

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