The Light is Sweet, a 1687 engraving by the Dutch poet, illustrator, and engraver Jan Luyken. One of 900+ prints available to buy from our online shop:

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The Light is Sweet – Product

An image from Jan Luyken's *Voncken der liefde Jesu, van het godtbegerende zielenvier* (1687). (Source: Rijksmuseum)

The first woman to run for president was also a free-love advocate, Spiritualist stockbroker, and the first person to publish the Communist Manifesto in the US. More on Victoria Woodhull's wild life:

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“Freedom! Equality!! Justice!!!”: Victoria Woodhull’s *Impending Revolution* (1872)

A Christian socialist speech by the first woman to run for president and the first person to publish the Communist Manifesto in the US.

Polish composer and virtuoso pianist #Chopin died #onthisday in 1849 aged just 39. He was buried to the tune of his very own “Funeral March”... one of the 1st recordings of which you can listen to here:

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Chopin’s Funeral March - The Edison Concert Band (1906)

Early recording of Chopin's "Funeral March" the famous dirge which was at played at his very own graveside during his burial at Père Lachaise ceme...

#OTD

Dice Man — it's just how he rolls... More radical fashion from the 16th-century Schembart Carnival here:

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Radical Fashion from the Schembart Carnival (1590)

Illustrations from a 16th century manuscript detailing the phenomenon of Nuremberg's Schembart Carnival, (literally "bearded-mask" carnival). Begin...

#OnThisDay in 1815, #Napoleon began his exile on St Helena. With not a lot to do and with the few newspapers he could get mostly in English, he decided to learn the language of his captors. More on Napoleon's "Englich" lessons here:

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Napoleon’s “Englich” Lessons

While imprisoned on St Helena, Napoleon started learning English. One resident of the island called his English “the oddest in the world.”

#OTD

“The flying Dragon is somewhat troublesome to compose...” ⠀ ⠀ From The Mysteries of Nature and Art (1634), a book that is said to have spurred a young Isaac Newton onto the scientific path —

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The Mysteries of Nature and Art

Julie Gardham, Senior Assistant Librarian at University of Glasgow's Special Collections Department, takes a look at the book that was said to ...

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“The flying Dragon is somewhat troublesome to compose...” ⠀ ⠀ From The Mysteries of Nature and Art (1634), a book that is said to have spur...

Front cover to Flatland (1884) by Edwin Abbott Abbott, who died #onthisday in 1926. Read Ian Stewart's introduction to the strange tale of A. Square's geometric adventures, the first ever book that could be described as “mathematical fiction”

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Aspiring to a Higher Plane

In 1884 Edwin Abbott Abbott published Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, perhaps the first ever book that could be described as "mathemat...

#otd

Listen to a series of recordings made by the ethnographer James Mooney in 1894 of different Native American Ghost Dance songs. According to the Library Of Congress notes that accompany the recordings, the performances are probably by Mooney himself —

The Public Domain Review

James Mooney’s Ghost Dance Recordings (1894)

Etching of a Sámi drum from the Dutch edition of Johannes Schefferus’ *Lapponia* (1682). Made of reindeer-hide such drums were used to support divinatory, trance-like states, allowing the shaman (noaidi) to leave his body. More in our latest post:

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Etching of a Sámi Drum from the Dutch Edition of Johannes Schefferus’ *Lapponia* (1682)

A shamanistic tool as described by one of the earliest studies of the indigenous peoples of Fennoscandia.

It's #WorldOctopusDay! Pictured here a “Polypus levis Hoyle” from a 1910 publication on the German Deep-Sea Expedition of 1898, led by Leipzig University Professor of Zoology, Carl Chun. Buy it as a print here:

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Octopus – Product

Image of a "Polypus levis Hoyle" from a 1910 publication on the German Deep-Sea Expedition of 1898, led by Leipzig University Professor of Zoology,...