Musæum Clausum is a catalog of invented books, pictures and antiquities written by 17th Century Englishman Sir Thomas Browne. It is a fantastical and witty meditation on the ravages of time on literature and other works of man. The Musæum Clausum is perhaps the finest example of the invented, or invisible, library, a genre which seems to have originated with Rabelais. The genre has been of special interest to Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog (older posts), where he has written about the invisible libraries of writers such as Charles Dickens, Neil Gaiman, H. P. Lovecraft and invisible libraries in video games. The natural medium for invisible libraries might be pictures, and Musæum Clausum inspired a suite of etchings by Erik Desmazieres.
posted by Kattullus on Oct 31, 2012 - 30 comments

recto|verso is a place where the staff of F.A. Bernett Books showcase some of the more spectacular, interesting, unusual and puzzling items they have come across. Discoveries of note include: Both Sides of Broadway, Then and Now, a building-by-building sequential photographic survey of the most famous street in America. The most influential graphic arts publication of late-1920s Tokyo, Gendai Shogyo Bijutsu Zenshu. Felix Vallotton’s Reinvention of the Woodcut, credited by many art historians of his time (and ours) as having modernized and revitalized the form in Western art. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Mar 25, 2012 - 5 comments

What Facebook needs to do to make Facebook Music what it should be: notes on building one true catalog of music.
posted by yerfatma on Oct 11, 2011 - 10 comments

A Crooked Gambling Supplies catalog from 1960, a 1914 Cyclopedia of 5,000 Puzzles, dozens of magic posters from the '20s to the '40s, and more fun ephemera from Old Catalog's flickr sets.
posted by madamjujujive on Mar 11, 2009 - 15 comments

Radio Shack catalog archives. Revisit your geeky youth.
posted by davebush on Dec 11, 2008 - 29 comments

The Retroist is a veritable treasure trove of 80's (and 70's) goodness. TV commercials, catalogs, and of course the poetry of Mr. Leonard Nimoy. The Youtube channel alone is worth the price of admission-- Tobor! Diet Rite! Candyland!
posted by dersins on Apr 24, 2008 - 15 comments

Catalog Choice: one-stop shop for opting out of catalogs you don't want to receive.
posted by alms on Dec 29, 2007 - 9 comments

Since April of this year, the blogger over at PlaidStallions has been dutifully scanning the most interesting/unique pages from 1970's department store catalogs (among other things) and posting the images online with commentary.
posted by jonson on Dec 1, 2006 - 24 comments

Build a huge house for only $782?! Low-cost housing for the masses! Unfortunately, you have to travel back in time to build houses for less than $1000. How many of these homes are in your town or on your block? (courtesy of J-Walk)
posted by crunchland on Mar 16, 2005 - 22 comments

Let's go shopping! There's a wonderful thread on Kevin Kelly's site about interesting and offbeat catalogs, like this one. What catalogs do you love? And while you're at chez KK, check out all the "cool tools" added since crunch linked it last summer. Great gift ideas.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders on Dec 4, 2003 - 1 comment

Amazon.com restaurants. Reminds me of Google Catalogs. Is this a win-win for all parties, or is Amazon just angling to try and grab yet another slice of the pie? (Via Yahoo! News.)
posted by Fofer on May 29, 2002 - 11 comments