The details: Antarctica 1912
Interrupting this 1912 map’s vast white stretch of “unerforschetes gebiet” (“unexplored territory”) is one journey—that of Ernest Shackleton, who made it deep into Antarctica in January of 1909. This...
View ArticleThe details: Immortalizing a dragonfly
Look at the lace of the wings, the fine detail on the hairs on the legs and head. This whole photo has a remarkable crispness and texture. If you click through and view the largest image size, you can...
View ArticleThe details: Apollo 13 splashdown
The details are hidden in the context of this photo (Source: NASA) from the mission control room of the Apollo 13 expedition. Because, really, there’s nothing particularly striking about this photo....
View ArticleThe details: Font flourishes
This 1886 hosiery advertisement is not as much about the quality of the hosiery as the character of the company and its workers: wholesome, orderly, and clean. (Not really fitting my own...
View ArticleThe details: Illumination
Delicate paintings of insects and flowers illuminate the Last Gospel passage from the Gospel of John, in this fifteenth- or sixteenth-century manuscript. I would just as readily expect these drawings...
View ArticleThe details: Painters on the Brooklyn Bridge cables, 1914
These men are standing (and/or lounging) somewhere between 119 and 276 feet above the East River…if I were to hazard a guess, I’d say around 200 feet.* The Brooklyn Bridge was finished in 1883, so this...
View ArticleThe details: Just one drop
Just one drop of water pooling at the lower curve of this bud, gathering and reflecting its plummy color. Then there’s the way the sunlight gives the leaves a waxy-looking finish. This, by the way, is...
View ArticleThe details: The virtues of crinolines
I enjoy browsing older periodicals—looking at the layout, the illustrations, the style of writing, and especially the advertisements. What are the selling tactics? How are capitalization and...
View ArticleThe details: “Quoth the raven”
Here is a delightful intersection of poetry and art: Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” illustrated by Gustav Doré. Twenty-odd etchings illustrate the 18-stanza poem. I learned about Doré’s illustrations...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....