French language ephemera and visual miscellany blog
December 4, 2007 6:53 PM   Subscribe

Agence Eureka is a French language image-blog with hundreds or even thousands of scanned illustrations, mostly from mid-20th century French schoolbooks, educational material, magazines, and ephemera. The current front page is slightly NSFW. Some of the categories include anatomy 1 & 2 (mildly NSFW); chocolate wrappers/trading cards; bricolage; decoupage (cut-outs); math education; playing cards; books and magazines; cars; cinema; orientalisme; sport; mild pin-ups; and many others (scroll all the way down the right to see the tags).

In most cases the above links are to only one set of images within many of that category - there are about 10 pages of decoupages, for example. A number of the same illustrations are available in alternate organization here and in their flickr sets. Also, their blog of French hats is fun.
posted by Rumple (12 comments total) 26 users marked this as a favorite
 
mildy NSFW
posted by stbalbach at 6:59 PM on December 4, 2007


Wow, this just goes on and on. Cool stuff, thanks.
posted by marxchivist at 7:54 PM on December 4, 2007


The driving safety ones are also fun.
posted by Rumple at 7:57 PM on December 4, 2007


Wonderful source, Rumple - hours of great browsing ahead. The ephemera tags - there are several - offer a rich smörgåsbord of visuals.
posted by madamjujujive at 8:11 PM on December 4, 2007


ahhh, a veritable visual feast. Spent a lovely hour exploring and enjoying. So many images I remember on my travels as a kid. Lots I didn't see but that remind me of illustrations I loved then. some of my faves: Peaceful fishing by a canal, classic swallows in flight, a tribal, the charming lovebirds by French cartoonist Raymond Peynet (aww); Morocco (?) shore window seat with a view.

A delightful meander. Thanks Rumple.
posted by nickyskye at 8:41 PM on December 4, 2007


I'm fairly amazed that Patricia's incredible archive of cultural ephemera has never been posted to the front page here before (?!). Not only is she the custodian (and digitiser) of all manner of French paper flotsam, she is a lovely person as well. See also: her blog about chimney sweeps (with her hubbie) - Le Ramoneur de Bourg and the large format archive, Grenouille Plus.
[It seems quite odd to see 'nsfw' associated with Agence Eureka - I mean, I get it, in terms of the front page at the moment, but it's not a descriptive item I would ever think is necessary with the site in general. An opposite kind of thought would be more usually appropriate - "Beware: this site will make you smile and have happy thoughts"]
posted by peacay at 9:55 PM on December 4, 2007 [1 favorite]


peacay, I just figured better safe than sorry on the nsfw thing -- in my universe this is exactly what everyone should do at work to lift their spirits. I too was surprised a site of this longstanding quality hadn't been posted before, except as a via in, I think, one of your posts. I suppose it being in French has something to do with it. I was really struck by how it is a portal to a whole slew of excellent sites which I had never encountered before, which reminds me how much of a circle-jerk a lot of the web has become,or, how I tend to retrace my steps around it.
posted by Rumple at 10:25 PM on December 4, 2007


thanks a lot, this is so delightful.
posted by nicolin at 2:41 AM on December 5, 2007


Great post, thanks!
posted by languagehat at 5:47 AM on December 5, 2007


This site has wrecked many an evening for me - once you start you just can't stop. It's one of my favorite graphics/images sites. Many of my mix disc covers have used art "borrowed" from here.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 6:45 AM on December 5, 2007


oh wow, peacay, going to their blog about chimney sweeps. What a heartbreaking profession. Some old French postcards about child sweeps. It reminds me of Kingley's Water Babies, about the boy sweep who drowned and found himself in a world underwater. What an interesting hobby to develop, looking for chimney sweep images.
posted by nickyskye at 7:17 AM on December 5, 2007


Oh joy! Great post Rumple. Many thanks.
posted by Dr.Pill at 11:13 AM on December 5, 2007


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