The Ryhiner Collection of maps has over 16000 images of world maps from 16th through 19th century. There are maps of every part of the world as well as sky maps, historical maps and optical views, caricatures & other drawings. All are viewable in high detail.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 12:29 PM on July 11, 2008 (16 comments)

What is that symbol one finds at the beginnings or endings of chapters of books called? It's like a little arabesque, but with a (reasonably) flat bottom or top.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by damnthesehumanhands at 6:45 PM on July 10, 2008 (11 comments)

In Parentheses is a collection of many ancient, medieval and classic texts from all over the world, many of whom are hard to find anywhere, let alone on the internet. There are translations from Greek, Old Norse, Medieval Irish, Japanese, Incan, Old French, Medieval Latin and many more! As well as all that they have papers in medieval studies and vaguely decadent and orientalism series. Adding to that there's a linguistics section with wordlists and language flash cards in languages such as Icelandic, Quechua, Basque, Classical Armenian and a whole bunch more. [flashcard links go to pdf files]
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 12:19 PM on July 10, 2008 (18 comments)

I'm looking for historical travel journals and books in the public domain. Specifically I'm interested in anything related to Victorian era exploration of the middle east and central Asia.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by thewalrus at 1:02 PM on July 7, 2008 (13 comments)

Are there any good English-language sources on dissent in World War II era Japan?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Kattullus at 11:10 AM on July 3, 2008 (7 comments)

Since 1945, one of the great wineries of the world, Château Mouton Rothschild, has commissioned great painters, sculptors, and artists to illustrate their wine labels.
posted to MetaFilter by mattbucher at 11:04 AM on June 27, 2008 (13 comments)

A Mid-summer Night's Story - one of hundreds of novels, poems, and tales in English translation at Suat Karantay's Contemporary Turkish Literature pages. Also: Turkish Poetry in Translation (the side-by-side translations of Dağlarca are particularly well-done), and selected stories of childhood & youth from Turkish authors in the mid 20th century.
posted to MetaFilter by Wolfdog at 8:52 AM on June 25, 2008 (4 comments)

Thinking of Joe Cocker's great cover of the Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends", I started wondering: what other cover versions have actually changed the time signature of the original?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 9:54 PM on June 21, 2008 (47 comments)

"Cultures at the far edge of the world" (YT) and "The worldwide web of belief and ritual" (YT). Two TED talks by anthropologist and explorer Wade Davis (previously) on the diversity of the world's indigenous cultures and their beliefs, and the richness of the "Ethnosphere," which he describes as "the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness." [Via Mind Hacks]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 4:50 PM on June 21, 2008 (12 comments)

The Milgram Experiment Today? "Students commonly assume that, even if Milgram’s famous experiment sheds important light on the power of situation today, were his experiment precisely reproduced today, it would not generate comparable results. To oversimplify the argument behind that claim: The power of white lab coats just ain’t what it used to be. Of course, that assertion has been difficult to challenge given that the option of replicating the Milgram experiment has been presumptively unavailable — indeed, it has been the paradigmatic example of why psychology experiments must be reviewed by institutional review boards ('IRBs'). Who would even attempt to challenge that presumption? The answer: Jerry Burger, a psychology professor at Santa Clara University. With some slight modifications, Burger manage to obtain permission to replicate Milgram’s experiment — and the results may surprise you." [Via MindHacks]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 4:35 PM on June 19, 2008 (60 comments)

New York City in (mostly) black and white. A huge collection of photos starting in the 1880s—some beautiful, all fascinating. Previously.
posted to MetaFilter by cerebus19 at 10:04 AM on June 19, 2008 (18 comments)

In City of Shadows, Alexey Titareno uses long exposures to create an eerie effect.
posted to MetaFilter by Armitage Shanks at 9:09 AM on June 12, 2008 (35 comments)

Imago Urbis: Giuseppe Vasi’s Grand Tour of Rome is a rich and innovative geographic database that projects Vasi's 18th century engravings of Roman architecture onto the contemporary map of Giambattista Nolli [previously] with supplementary modern satellite, photographic and mapping overlays together with copious background detail. The work was undertaken by researchers at the University of Oregon (announcement) [via]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 11:21 PM on June 11, 2008 (3 comments)

When people think of Soviet culture in the Stalin era, jazz usually isn't the first music to come to mind. But it was there, and some of it was pretty good, whether adapting Western standards, partying with a Russian twist, or just being adventurous. If that's a little too old-school for you, try some Soviet funk.
posted to MetaFilter by StrikeTheViol at 10:54 AM on June 9, 2008 (14 comments)

The Prague Bible (1489) is a splendid three-volume MS of the Tanakh, once in the possession of Enlightenment luminary Moses Mendelssohn. There are several other beautiful examples of medieval and early modern Hebrew MSS online, including the Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts collection (New York Public Library), the Illuminated Haggadah Exhibit (Klau University), selections from Moses Maimonides' Moreh Nevukim (Leiden University), and the Prato Haggadah (Jewish Theological Seminary). See also the introduction to the Hebraic Collections at the Library of Congress.
posted to MetaFilter by thomas j wise at 3:21 PM on June 7, 2008 (7 comments)

Maps: Finding our place in the world is an exhibit at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, and it runs until this Sunday June 8. That page contains images of a few of the maps. One of the many great things included is an animated map of the US Civil War in 4 minutes (one week per second, timeline noted at bottom, casualty counter rolling in bottom right corner - info about this animation) The exhibition book was previously linked here; that site includes higher-resolution versions of some more of the maps. I was floored by all the stuff they have; in terms of the rarity of the stuff in it, and the geek-delight factor, I think it's probably the best gallery show I've ever seen.
posted to MetaFilter by LobsterMitten at 9:48 PM on June 4, 2008 (24 comments)

"In this rare documentary, Satyajit Ray talks about his films. Part 1, 2, 3. Satyajit Ray... is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Born in the city of Calcutta into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and letters, Ray studied at Presidency College and at the Visva-Bharati University. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Ray was drawn into filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing the Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves during a visit to London. He directed thirty-seven films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. Ray's first film, Pather Panchali, won eleven international prizes, including Best Human Document at Cannes film festival"
posted to MetaFilter by vronsky at 7:04 PM on June 4, 2008 (7 comments)

Europe has produced its share of outstanding jazz pianists. Here are five of them: Martial Solal (French/Algerian-born, born 1927); Tete Montoliu (Catalonian/Spanish, 1933-97); Enrico Pieranunzi (Italian, born 1949); Misha Mengelberg (Dutch/Ukrainian-born, born 1935); Marco di Marco (Italian, born 1940).
posted to MetaFilter by ornate insect at 10:26 AM on June 2, 2008 (7 comments)

The year was 1957: the Soviet Union had launched the cutest little sattelite ever. And it didn't just look good, it sounded good, too! As sweet a sound as any avant garde composer of the 1950's might dream up! Of course, the US would have to get a little metal ball of its own into space, but things didn't go so well. They did manage to get one up there in 1958, but nobody knows if it sounded as good as ol' Sputnik. But anyway, most folks weren't listening to satellites 50 years ago, they were listening to, well, lessee, there was...
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 7:35 AM on June 2, 2008 (16 comments)

Come, take a ride and look at some of the Islamic Art of the past. Or, you could call it Art of the Islamic World if you're so inclined. If not, then how about taking into account some of the major milestones of Islam throughout the centuries, from past till present (more examples here), including the art of Calligraphy and Architecture. Not to mention the Arab world's contribution to music, both old and new. [Previously mentioned, here, here, here, and here, with a wonderful comment from nickyskye as usual]
posted to MetaFilter by hadjiboy at 10:03 PM on May 29, 2008 (28 comments)

What was daily life like behind the iron curtain? I recently returned from a vacation in a former Warsaw Pact country and could not help but wonder what things were like there 20 years ago.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 7:31 PM on May 28, 2008 (25 comments)

History is a Weapon -- Featuring Propaganda by the inventor of modern PR, Edward Bernays, essays by Bill Clinton, Eugene Debs, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Mark Twain, the entirety of A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, and much, much more.
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 11:58 PM on May 26, 2008 (55 comments)

Historian Robert Irwin reviews two books critical of Edward Said's Orientalism. Irwin's own critique received positive and mixed reviews. In this brief interview, Said explains what he was trying to do in Orientalism.
posted to MetaFilter by ibmcginty at 11:38 AM on May 24, 2008 (8 comments)

One fine old day in old LA, in the year of nineteen and sixty, one Frederick Usher met Eddie "One String" Jones, heard him lay down some deep blues on his diddley bow, and was so taken with Jones' monochord masterpieces that he ran home, grabbed his tape recorder and recorded Jones in the alley. One other recording session ensued soon thereafter, which was released as an LP in 1964. By that time, however, the mysterious Eddie Jones (if that was even his real name) was long gone, and was never heard from again. [NOTE: see hoverovers for link descriptions]
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 12:09 AM on May 24, 2008 (22 comments)

What's the big deal with JL Austin's "How To Do Things with Words"?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by limon at 8:04 PM on May 20, 2008 (10 comments)

Three of the giants of Brazilian guitar were Laurindo Almeida (1917-1995; wiki here), Luiz Bonfa (1922-2001; wiki here), and Baden Powell (1937-2000; wiki here). Here is Laurindo Almeida w/the MJQ playing One Note Samba; here is Luiz Bonfa playing the theme from Black Orpheus (which he composed); and here is Baden Powell playing Samba Triste.
posted to MetaFilter by ornate insect at 10:54 AM on May 19, 2008 (17 comments)

The Archive of the Planet was the brainchild of the millionaire French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn.

BBC Book
BBC Documentary
A Little Part of the BBC Documentary on Youtube
Some of the Autochromes
Some Words on the Kahn Foundation Travelling Fellowship
See also: Autochromatica on Flickr
posted to MetaFilter by Taksi Putra at 8:38 PM on May 18, 2008 (3 comments)

Google Maps now integrates with Wikipedia (click "More" tab). Concharto is a geographic wiki for documenting historical events. Flick also has a map service.
posted to MetaFilter by stbalbach at 7:57 AM on May 14, 2008 (20 comments)

It stands as one of the more unusual turning points of the Cold War, thanks mostly to the surprise appearance of several naked middle-aged women. Taking The Cure: How a group of British Columbian anarchists inspired democracy in Russia.
posted to MetaFilter by amyms at 11:25 PM on May 13, 2008 (7 comments)

Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy from the collection of The Library of Congress. 373 individual pieces from ranging in time from the 9th to the 19th Century, all explained and some translated. A few personal favorites (note that very high quality scans can be viewed by clicking the appropriate link after clicking thumbnail): marriage decree, verses on tragic love, practice sheet, verses 10-11 of the 48th chapter of the Qur'an, poetic verses offering advice, frontispiece of Qur'anic exegesis and quatrain by Rumi. There are also four special presentations: Calligraphers of the Persian Tradition, Ottoman Calligraphers and Their Works, Qur’anic Fragments and Noteworthy Items. This last presentation also features representational art, for instance images of The battle of Mazandaran and the Persian king Bahram Gur hunting.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 5:21 PM on May 12, 2008 (9 comments)

"King Cotton" created a huge demand for land and (slave) labor that changed early America's borders, population, and economics. But just as cotton affected history, history affected cotton: the story of naturally colored cottons -- brown, green, yellow, mauve, and reddish cottons -- has almost been lost.
posted to MetaFilter by Asparagirl at 2:20 PM on May 9, 2008 (16 comments)

What one book will allow others to gain the truest insight into the soul of each city or region
posted to Ask MetaFilter by reenum at 10:21 PM on May 6, 2008 (15 comments)

Columbia University's Digital Scriptorium is a database of high quality scans from medieval and renaissance manuscripts. The highlights section alone is breathtaking, but you can search and browse through over 5000 manuscripts and almost 25000 individual images.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 10:06 AM on May 3, 2008 (15 comments)

What clothes did Africans wear before contact with the Arabs?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by markovich at 10:00 AM on May 2, 2008 (3 comments)

An extraordinary piece of magazine writing by Chris Jones. Jones tells the story of how the body of Sergeant Joe Montgomery makes its way from a Baghdad suburb to its final resting place in a grave in Indiana. It's one of the finest pieces of journalism that I've read in years. It’s extremely moving without being saccharine or twee. It’s a military story, but utterly without jingoism or indictment. And it’s wonderfully observed. If I taught a first-year creative writing course, I'd make this required reading.
posted to MetaFilter by dbarefoot at 9:57 PM on April 30, 2008 (87 comments)

Ways of Seeing, the BBC documentary written and hosted by novelist and art critic John Berger, is back up on YouTube. (scroll down for direct links to all four half-hour episodes) "I actually find it rather disturbing that -- despite our claims to be a culture that's increasing freedom of choice all the time -- we haven't come up with anything quite as astute, subversive or beautiful as Ways of Seeing since. Not on the BBC, and not even -- especially not -- on the internet. Download it while you still can."
posted to MetaFilter by vronsky at 2:06 PM on April 30, 2008 (32 comments)

The Southern Foodways Alliance is one weighed-down church-supper table, full of oral history/blog projects like The Tamale Trail, the Boudin Trail, interviews and recipes from the Bartenders of New Orleans, photo essay/interviews from Birmingham's Greek-Americans, a mess o'homemade films, and a passel of event and BBQ-shack photos on Flickr, all smothered in the tangy-sweet academic goodness of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at Ole Miss. These folks get my vote for most flavorful, funkiest food-loving folklorists in the lower forty-eight.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko at 6:07 PM on April 28, 2008 (15 comments)

The Modernist Journals Project collects literary arts journals from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including both issues of Wyndham Lewis' Vorticist manifesto Blast, the first ten years of Poetry magazine (with Amy Lowell, T.S. Eliot, G.K. Chesterton and foreign correspondent Ezra Pound), topical essays, the Virginia Woolf-inspired December 1910 Project, the amazing proto-dada zine Le Petit Journal des Réfusées and a searchable biographical database of famous and not so famous artists and writers.
posted to MetaFilter by mediareport at 9:50 AM on April 28, 2008 (10 comments)

Tohoku University's Kano Collection is an unparalleled collection of japanese books from the Edo period. The beautiful and grizzly Kaibou zonshinzu anatomical chart has been making the blogrounds lately but that's only one of the countless treasures the Kano Collection has to offer. Stumbling around near-blindly, like a non-Japanese reader such as myself, with only minimal help from the site, I have come across an amazing variety of beautiful objects, such as this picture book, a scroll with images of animals, city map, map of Japan, battle map, another picture book, the Kaitai shouzu anatomical chart and this picture scroll which has my favorite little scene I've come across in the collection. Whole days could be spent just surfing idly through the Kano Collection.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 4:06 AM on April 28, 2008 (9 comments)

To Catch A Thief. How a Civil War buff's chance discovery led to a sting, a raid and a victory against traffickers in stolen historical documents. Related article: Pay Dirt in Montana. And photo gallery.
posted to MetaFilter by amyms at 12:27 AM on April 27, 2008 (20 comments)

The other day I happened to come upon a music video that is just so grooving, so human and so real, that, well, it moved me, darling. Just check it out. After watching the clip, I learned that these guys are mostly disabled by polio (that's why several of them are in those rather unusual wheelchairs) and that they were living on the grounds of the Kinshasa zoo, which is where the clip was filmed. Then I learned that last year they were seeking to bring a lawsuit against the UN. Then I found some other clips. And now I am a major fan of Staff Benda Bilili.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 3:30 AM on April 26, 2008 (46 comments)

An introductory piece on the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
posted to MetaFilter by sleepy pete at 3:58 PM on April 25, 2008 (16 comments)

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu doesn't speak much, but when he takes up his guitar, he sings, literally and figuratively. He sings of growing up in an Aboriginal community on a remote island off the north coast of Australia; he sings of coming to terms with being born blind; and he sings the creation stories of his Yolngu people.
posted to MetaFilter by dhruva at 4:34 PM on April 22, 2008 (19 comments)

Bookmarks Magazine has long been one of my favorite book review periodicals because it aggregates and summarizes reviews from many sources, for example: The Children of Húrin. Recently they have opened up the back-issue archive to non-subscribers.
posted to MetaFilter by stbalbach at 8:07 PM on April 20, 2008 (6 comments)

Ever since I first heard mbira from Zimbabwe almost 30 years ago (via this record), I've been a lover of that enchanting, delicate and intricate music. It's only recently, however, that many of us who aren't actually players of the mbira could see just how the instrument is played: Holding the mbira, and scales - Lesson One - Two - Three - Four, and more and more. And here are some recommended mbira players and groups with MySpace Music pages worth checking out: Spirit Talk Mbira - Mbira Oracle - Kunzawa Mbira Group - Joel Laviolette.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 7:18 AM on April 19, 2008 (18 comments)

For your weekend aural edification, courtesy of Internet Archive, a sampling of Old-Time and country blues gems: Buell Kazee's The Dying Soldier (1928), B.F. Shelton's Pretty Polly (1927), Geeshie Wiley's Last Kind Words (1930), Dock Boggs' Danville Girl, Kelly Harrel's Rovin' Gambler (1925), Clarence Ashley's My Sweet Farm Girl (1931), Charlie Poole's Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues (1925) and the Memphis Jug Band's A Black Woman is Like a Black Snake (1928).
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 7:10 AM on April 18, 2008 (13 comments)

Labour, which had started the disasters of Cyprus by denying it any decolonisation after 1945, had now completed them, abandoning it to trucidation [by doing nothing when Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974]. London was quite prepared to yield Cyprus to Greece in 1915, in exchange for Greek entry into the war on its side. Had it done so, all subsequent suffering might have been avoided. It is enough to compare the fate of Rhodes, still closer to Turkey and with a comparable Turkish minority, which in 1945 peacefully reverted to Greece, because it was an Italian not a British colony. In the modern history of the Empire, the peculiar malignity of the British record in Cyprus stands apart.

The Divisions of Cyprus, an article in The London Review of Books by historian Perry Anderson, is an excellent history of Cyprus from 1878 to the modern day as well as a polemic against the way that outside powers have treated the island.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 11:59 AM on April 17, 2008 (17 comments)

• "Please don't beat me. I'm having my period." ~ Mama Wangari
• "It is being both black and gay [which is problematic]." ~ Zanele Muholi (Nehanda Nyakasikana) [NSFW]
• "Sisters at heart, these women are: from Kibera to Loresho." ~ WM
• "My vagina wants an Uzi" ~ Larissa Klazinga (Amanda Atwood)
• "You are from Kenya? So are you Kikuyu or Luo?" ~ Wangui

Blogs of women from Africa. That is all.
posted to MetaFilter by hadjiboy at 6:29 AM on April 17, 2008 (25 comments)

I love risotto. I really do. But my recipe which is a chicken + spinach risotto is getting boring. I'd love to experiment a bit more.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ysabet at 6:00 PM on April 15, 2008 (29 comments)

Those big, wonderful book blogs like Paper Cuts, Guardian Books, and Poetry Foundation haven't totally satisfied your book blog bloodlust?
posted to MetaFilter by NolanRyanHatesMatches at 8:12 AM on April 16, 2008 (14 comments)