Category Archives: History

Lost Libraries

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

In an age of data retrieval, when just about anything ever printed can be seen online and is eternally preserved there, and when modern anxiety is fuelled by too much information, we would do well to remember that the loss … Continue reading →

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Lincoln in Books

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

The brand new Center for Education and Leadership at Washington DC’s Ford’s Theater Museum sports a ten meter-tall tower of 6,800 books all about President Abraham Lincoln. The books are all histories or biographies about the 16th President, along with … Continue reading →

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What’s a Rare Bookman

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

The exhibition “Ray Safford, Rare Bookman,”  which opened yesterday at the Grolier Club, New York City, offers a look into the famed New York firm of Charles Scribner’s Sons and the literary, publishing, and rare book worlds in turn-of-the-century New York. … Continue reading →

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A Valentine’s Day Kiss

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

As today is Valentine’s Day , I thought it would be an appropriate time to bring you the story of Auguste Rodin’s erotically charged masterpiece, The Kiss. The video below from the Tate museums,  explains how The Kiss was originally … Continue reading →

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Hot Bagels for Breakfast

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

Who doesn’t love a hot bagel? Never had a bagel? So sad for you. This wonderful short film is from the Brooklyn Public Library film archives. Filmed in the heart of Brooklyn, New York during the 1970s, the film is … Continue reading →

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Mapping Charles Dickens

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

If you follow this blog you are well aware of the varied events, exhibitions and publications celebrating what would have been Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday. You can discover many of the happenings surrounding the Bicentenary by visiting the Museum of … Continue reading →

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Where Dickens Lived

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

Next week marks the official Charles Dickens Bicentennial, but commemorations have been taking place around the world for months. Now a new book by Cambridge University Professor Ruth Richardson has uncovered the real-life people who inspired Dickens’ iconic characters. Dickens … Continue reading →

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Would You Visit Napoleonland

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

In a baffling bid to increase tourism to France, Yves Jégo, Mayor of Montereau and Deputy from the Parti Radical, has announced plans to raise funding for a new French theme park dedicated entirely to Napoleon Bonaparte. Mayor Jégo suggests … Continue reading →

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Eye of America

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

For his audacious new project, Vanishing Cultures, Chicago photographer Dennis Manarchy is traveling around the United States creating astonishing, one-of-a-kind portraits of Americans who represent the vanishing cultures of the nation. Manarchy has created an amazing 35-foot-long camera called “Eye … Continue reading →

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Save Christiania (and own a piece of history)

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Brian D. Butler

It’s been forty years since a rag-tag coalition of Copenhagen residents and backpackers from around the world tore down the fence and occupied an unused military complex in the heart of the Danish capital, giving birth to the Freetown of … Continue reading →

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