#historical curiosities

[talesofanjels]

Historical curiosities: Arts

Truth coming out of the well

[daguerreotyping]

Carte de visite of two 19th century Swiss gentlemen thoroughly prepared to splish and also perchance to splash in their super stylish rain gear, dated on back 1869

[owlliehehe]

Arthur and port staring at a frog

Gabriel: "I heard you got a hold of some marmelada-"

Arthur: "Oh, you mean 'marmaladoo'" ?

Gabriel: "..."

Gabriel: "Uh, yeah sure."

Arthur: WaIT-

Both: "is THAT...."

Arthur: "FRANCIS!!"

Gabriel: "No way."

[bongo-clash]

AU where ghosts attain the right to exist after a pro-ghost propaganda censorship law means that Paulina’s 200k Phantom x Reader strangers-to-lovers slowburn gets deleted and Casper High get so collectively mad about it that they literally riot in the streets. Danny is saved from corrupt government forces by the power of weird prose about his ghost-eyes and Y/N’s inability to just hold his damn hand. It’s like if My Immortal permanently altered the course of human rights activism. 

When it first gets deleted Tucker calls Danny at like 6am yelling about how it’s gone- and on the one hand, the GIW having the power to enact laws like that is kind of terrifying. But on the other hand, it’s So Funny that the first thing they did with that ability was get rid of some teenage girl’s Phantom fanfiction. (“I mean, if you think about it, that’s as ‘pro-ghost’ as you get.”)

[sehnsuchtz]

[brother-emperors]

you cannot even imagine the amount of love and respect I have for your posts where it's a very good piece of art and then 2/3s of the post remaining are Sources

ngl I almost posted a whole essay in reply on why I like to post sources with my art, but tbh it's because I really enjoy reading and want to pass the curiosity on to someone else. like, my first impulse when I read a cool thing is to immediately make my friends also read the cool thing. sometimes.....I will even draw comics specifically because I want to talk about something I read lmao

it makes me happy to see messages like this in my inbox, even if I don't always post them! I'm glad that people are enjoy it :)

[icewindandboringhorror]

I know multiple of these are likely important to people, but I'm asking in terms of like - which of these do you tend to focus on the MOST, enjoy the most, that is most essential for you to actually care about the media, etc.?

(For example: someone finding "Relatability" most important would likely not enjoy a show much if they have trouble empathizing with the characters/relating to it, even if it were good otherwise. Or, someone might be able to overlook bad acting and ugly costumes, as long as the Character Dynamics are fun to them, because they value that more than Aesthetics- while for others, bad costumes would be a dealbreaker.)

Also feel free to reblog and explain your answer or more information in the tags- I've always been curious about people's relationships to media, how they conceptualize it/what they get out of it, how some people value some parts more than others, how that informs their overall taste and genres they may be more inclined towards, etc. :0c

[themuseumlady]

~ From my personal collection of oddities ~

I originally purchased this bottle at a local 'odds and ends' store, intrigued by the ingredient list (Particularly the arsenic trioxide) Though I am not entirely certain what these specific pills were used for, there is a good chance their application was to treat tuberculosis.

The now-defunct pill manufacturer, The Upjohn Company, was founded in 1886 in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Writing my Hazardous Materials on Display policy recently made me think a lot about my own personal collection of antiques, this in particular!

[nateconnolly]

The poem "White on the Moon" by Gil Scott-Heron (the guy who did "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised)

[postcard-from-the-past]

"Curiosity"

French vintage postcard, staged and photographed by A. Bergeret

[statelibraryqueensland]

Queensland Butterflies and Moths, 1907.

Illustrated page from Christmas supplement to The Queenslander, December 14, 1907, p.67. (LINK)

[talesofanjels]

Historical curiosities (masterlist)

Science Historical figures Art Did you know?

[kanyniablue]

california, you’re a hole in my heart

[bijoumikhawal]

Karaites are not a were (there are probably around 50,000 of them today), and they aren't biblical literalists. Karaites still interpret the Torah. They do not try to read the most obvious meaning out of it (which is still interpretation), they try to read what would have been obvious in Antiquity (which is also interpretation). Community leaders may often be Ḥakhamim (scholars) who are consulted regarding the Torah, and in the past compiled volumes of different interpretations (most have been lost). However, the only exaltation they have, to my understanding, is as scholars, filling an advising role. Every Jew in Karaite Judaism is encouraged to study the Torah and interpret it. All interpretations are held to the same scrutiny. The interpretations I've read from Karaites can be very satisfyingly logical (such as the "Tekhelet is woad" argument).

They reject that the Talmud is equal to or above the Torah, and I've seen a few different opinions from Karaites about what that means. One person I've bumped into said you shouldn't consult the Talmud at all, but the stance on the official site for American Karaites is as follows: "Rejection of the authority of the Talmud does not mean that the Karaites consider it unlawful to consult it or to rely on it; it means only that they deny its heavenly origin and regard it as an original work of the Sages in interpretation of the written Torah, and therefore subject to the shortcomings inherent in any handiwork of mortal men uninspired by heaven." Not to be controversial or anything, but I agree with them on that point. Further, that which directly contradicts the Torah is to be discarded as a custom, which is a contention with some Talmudic interpretations.

The rejection of the Talmud wasn't done for shits and giggles- it was likely a political choice reacting to the introduction of Islam, or in reaction to the consolidation of power among rabbis and how difficult the Talmud and additional interpretations risked becoming to learn, preserve, and transmit. There's a reason Sa'adiah Gaon was praised because “Were it not for Sa’adiah, the Torah might have disappeared from the midst of Israel", and it is notable that he was also a major opponent of Karaites. We don't actually know, because figuring out the beginning of Karaite Judaism is hard- some say it was a dispute over the Exilarch position (which Karaites say is made up, and some contemporary sources lack mention of), we have a document from 641 (i.e. the previous century) mentioning Karaites in Egypt, some think they were connected to Philo, others to some other group. But you don't break off from a major sect of your religion for fun!

Further calling Karaites biblical literalists invites one to think of Christian biblical literalists, which really isn't the case. For example in some ways Karaite women have better protections than Rabbinic women- they can initiate divorces! And if necessary, a court could issue a divorce order by itself. Fundamentalist can be a more accurate term, but still implies something false- Karaites did not arise in reaction to modernism, secularism, liberalism, etc. Most religious scholars will tell you fundamentalism is a modern phenomenon. Karaites are a decidedly, very old community. Further, "fundamentalist", in most cases, is being used as a pejorative for Karaites, not intended as an accurate description. People who don't use eithef of these terms also like to use the word "extremist".

[da3drat]

I was GOING to go to bed at a reasonable time tonight and then the bedtime fanfic movie posed a question (always a bad sign)- does Meri play the lute or the lyre? So now I'm elbow deep of the history of the lyre. That's fun.

[sehnsuchtz]

cruciform watches