~ Voyages Extraordinaires

Francis C. Fuerst

e_a — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:50:22 +0000

Sources LIFE, Feb 3, 1947 p. 14f
via letslookupandsmile/Flickr
and Mrs. Deane

Giovanni Battista de’Cavalieri’s Monsters

e_a — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:18:51 +0000

Opera nel a quale vie molti Mostri de tute le parti del mondo antichi et modern (Monsters from all parts of the ancient and modern world), Giovanni Battista de’Cavalieri, 1585.

via The British Museum

Spirit Photography

e_a — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 19:02:21 +0000

These photographs of ‘spirits’ are taken from an album of photographs unearthed in a Lancashire second-hand and antiquarian bookshop by one of the curators of the National Media Museum in the UK. They were taken by a controversial medium called William Hope (1863-1933), ca. 1920.

Source: Flickr Commons

A Crowley Exhibition

e_a — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:34:33 +0000

Kenneth Anger – The Man We Want to Hang (2002)

Congo Dandies

e_a — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:31:33 +0000

Le Sapeurs of the Congo belong the Societé des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Elegantes – “one of the world’s most exclusive clubs. Members have their own code of honour, codes of professional conduct and strict notions of morality. It is a world within a world within a city.”

Photos by Daniele Tamigni from his book “Gentlemen of Bacongo“.
Via Jonathan Crisman

Animals on Boats

e_a — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 21:15:20 +0000

Dog on board HMS 'Laforey', 1915-16

Seaman on 'Pommern' enticing the ship's cat up on of the shrouds, date unknown

Second mate, the Master, the First Mate and the ship's dog, on board the 'Grace Harwar', 1929

Poodle on board an unknown yacht, date unkown

Princess Victoria with Mac on board the 'Victoria and Albert III', 1909

Wallaby on board HMS 'Renown', 1920's

A quarterdeck scene on board HMS 'Trafalgar' at Malta, 1897

'Garth Castle' mascot Jacko at Boat Drill, about 1914

The mascot of HMS 'Renown', about 1941

The ship's cats, HMS 'Hawkins', 1919-21

Trotsky the bear being transferred to HMS 'Ajax' from the 'Emperor of India', 1921

Goat mascot of HMS 'Irresistible', date unknown

Scot at his bath attended by his faithful servant 'Lamps', date unknown

Black cat and spaniel, HMS 'Barham', about 1916

Mr P.M Anderson and Russ on the 'Scotia', about 1902

National Maritime Museum

The Structure of Matter (1982)

e_a — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:01:09 +0000

Recent flea market find:

Kleine Enzyklopädie Struktur der Materie
Weißmantel/Lenk/Forker/Linke (Eds.)
VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, 1982.

Deadline for submission was exactly thirty years ago in March 1981.

A Euro well spent.

Polar Opposites

e_a — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:33:35 +0000

I have always preferred the North Pole to the South Pole (Ice bears > penguins*), but I’d still love to visit Antarctica’s Dark Sector… A place without light pollution or radio wave interference – and a view like that:

The aurora australis over the Dark Sector at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station (Keith Vanderlinde/National Science Foundation)

Be sure to check out the Boston Globe Big Picture post on Scenes from Antarctica, where the above picture was taken from…

The BBC is currently producing a series about the polar regions called The Frozen Planet. The very interesting reports and pictures by Chris Watson can be read, viewed, and listened to here. And now, with Shackleton’s whiskey from his hut on Ross Island being thawed, why not revisit his tales from the South Pole?

Audio Playlist:

1. My South Polar Expedition by Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (mp3, Project Gutenberg, 3:43)

2. A Journey South by Chris Watson (mp3, Touch Radio, 50:20)

Hut Interior (c) Chris Watson

*Penguins aren’t that bad, actually…

Vintage National Geographic Scans

e_a — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:08:25 +0000

(Caption missing, unfortunately)

Megasoma beetle

Prince of Bhutan and his bride, 1952

Screech owls

Egyptian students, 1954

Spoonbills in Florida, 1954

Annual Lobster Festival, Maine 1952

Inuit boy, Alaska 1959

Kazakh nomand woman brewing tea, 1954

King of Bunyaro on a throne of 60 leopard skins, 1960

Massai men

Sorcerer in New Guinea, 1955

Viking Festival, Shetland Islands 1954

A tumblr well worth following: Vintage National Geographic Scans (mainly from the 1950s to early 60s)

Doug Aitken “Migration”

e_a — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:38:38 +0000

Still from Migration (2008)