The Garden Of Forking Paths

Advertisement for Goodyear from LIFE Magazine, 1945

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:04:00 -0400

Advertisement for Goodyear from LIFE Magazine, 1945

Hand-tinted map of the Island of Utopia from A Fruitful and...

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:38:00 -0400

Hand-tinted map of the Island of Utopia from A Fruitful and Pleasant Work of the Best State of a Public Weal, and of the New Isle Called Utopia by Thomas Moore, 1516

The Ideal City by Ronald Lampitt, 1951

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:12:03 -0400

The Ideal City by Ronald Lampitt, 1951

The Seed by Paweł Jońca, 2003

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:09:50 -0400

The Seed by Paweł Jońca, 2003

andreasp-rv: Sattler’s panorama of Salzburg in 1829 More:...

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:00:23 -0400

andreasp-rv:

Sattler’s panorama of Salzburg in 1829

More: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sattler-Panorama

Detail from a map of Earliest Historic Regions and the...

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:35:00 -0400

Detail from a map of Earliest Historic Regions and the Birthplace of Civilization, 1906

This is a fine example of cross-hatched hill profiles to indicate terrain in a pleasing, if inaccurate manner.

The temptation of despair from The Art of Dying, Provence, 15th...

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:58:01 -0400

The temptation of despair from The Art of Dying, Provence, 15th century

Nemesis by Alfred Rethel, 1837 (via Dark Classics)

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:34:19 -0400

Nemesis by Alfred Rethel, 1837

(via Dark Classics)

Death Comes As a Friend by J. Jungtow, 1851

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:16:33 -0400

Death Comes As a Friend by J. Jungtow, 1851

Underwater photograph by Alberich Mathews

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:07:57 -0400

Underwater photograph by Alberich Mathews

Illustrations based on Thomas Vaughan’s Lumen de Lumine: A...

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:20:00 -0400

Illustrations based on Thomas Vaughan’s Lumen de Lumine: A New Magical Light (1651), from an unidentified and undated German book.

The Nautilus, designed by American inventor Robert Fulton in...

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:03:05 -0400

The Nautilus, designed by American inventor Robert Fulton in 1800, is considered the world’s first practical submarine. With a retractable sail and hand-cranked propeller, it could dive to a depth of 25 feet and move about as fast as a rowboat. This is his 1806 plan for the second Nautilus, which was never built.

Last night I dreamed I was wandering through gloomy underground...

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:48:09 -0400

Last night I dreamed I was wandering through gloomy underground tunnels with Captain Nemo (who was played by Benedict Cumberbatch). He showed me an early prototype of the submarine Nautilus that he had narrowly escaped after it was crushed by a draw-bridge.

(The Nautilus by Kevin O’Neill, for Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 1999)

Miniature painting of Queen Elizabeth I in the guise of Paris...

Wed, 08 May 2013 18:42:34 -0400

Miniature painting of Queen Elizabeth I in the guise of Paris judging the goddesses of marriage, love, and war, by Isaac Oliver, c. 1580

An unidentified U-Boat commander, by Hugo Jaeger, 1942

Wed, 01 May 2013 01:50:55 -0400

An unidentified U-Boat commander, by Hugo Jaeger, 1942

The spinning vortex of Saturn’s north polar storm...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:57:54 -0400

The spinning vortex of Saturn’s north polar storm resembles a deep red rose of giant proportions surrounded by green foliage in this false-color image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Measurements have sized the eye at a staggering 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) across with cloud speeds as fast as 330 miles per hour (150 meters per second).

This image is among the first sunlit views of Saturn’s north pole captured by Cassini’s imaging cameras. When the spacecraft arrived in the Saturnian system in 2004, it was northern winter and the north pole was in darkness.

NASA/Cassini

A Sloth by Joris Hoefnagel, 1561 - 1562

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:32:00 -0400

A Sloth by Joris Hoefnagel, 1561 - 1562

Giovanni Paolo Panini - Fête musicale donnée par le cardinal de...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:30:04 -0400

Giovanni Paolo Panini - Fête musicale donnée par le cardinal de La Rochefoucauld au théâtre Argentina de Rome en 1747 à l’occasion du mariage du Dauphin, fils de Louis XV (1747)

Body of a Courtesan in 9 stages of Decomposition by Kobayashi...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:46:39 -0400

Body of a Courtesan in 9 stages of Decomposition by Kobayashi Eitaku, c. 1870

Mezek by André Juillard Subject to an arms embargo in 1948, the...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:13:25 -0400

Mezek by André Juillard

Subject to an arms embargo in 1948, the nascent state of Israel was forced to buy German designed Messerschmitt BF-109s from Czechoslovakia. The Israeli air force painted the Star of David on the Luftwaffe designed aircraft (Nicknamed “mezek” or mule), and flew them against Egyptian-piloted Spitfires in a bizarre reprise of the battle of Britain.