~openculture | Bookmarks (59)
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A Guided Tour of the Largest Handmade Model of Imperial Rome: Discover the 20x20 Meter Model Created During the 1930s
At the moment, you can’t see the largest, most detailed handmade model of Imperial Rome for...
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Humans First Started Enjoying Cannabis in China Circa 2800 BC
Judging by how certain American cities smell these days, you’d think cannabis was invented last week....
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Beautifully-Preserved Frescoes with Figures from the Trojan War Discovered in a Lavish Pompeii Home
Image via Pompeii Archaeological Park Imagine visiting the home of a prominent, wealthy figure, and at...
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An Archive of Vividly Illustrated Japanese Schoolbooks, from the 1800s to World War II
If you want to appreciate Japanese books, it helps to be able to read Japanese books....
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How the Berlin Wall Worked: The Engineering & Structural Design of the Wall That Formidably Divided East & West
More than thirty years after the formal dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, few...
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How the Year 2440 Was Imagined in a 1771 French Sci-Fi Novel
Many Americans might think of Rip Van Winkle as the first man to nod off and...
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How Photos Were Transmitted by Wire in 1937: The Innovative Technology of a Century Ago
When did you last send someone a photo? That question may sound odd, owing to the...
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How Was the Great Pyramid Built?; What Did the Ancient Egyptian Language Sound Like?; Were There Bars in Ancient Egypt?: An Egyptologist Answers These Questions & More from Internet Users
What did ancient Egyptians sound like? What did they eat and drink? What ancient Egyptian medicine...
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When a Medieval Monk Crowdsourced the Most Accurate Map of the World, Creating “the Google Earth of the 1450s”
If we want to know the precise geographical location of, say, a particular church in Madrid,...
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Download 9,200+ Free Films from the Prelinger Archives: Documentaries, Cartoons & More
Depending on how you reckon it, the “American century” has already ended, is now drawing to...
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Is America Declining Like Ancient Rome?
Pursued to any depth, the question of whether the United States of America counts as an...
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The Song From the 1500’s That Blows Rick Beato Away: An Introduction to John Dowland’s Entrancing Music
In 2006, Sting released an album called Songs from the Labyrinth, a collaboration with Bosnian lutenist...
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Hear the Evolution of Mozart’s Music, Composed from Ages 5 to 35
More than a quarter of a millennium after he composed his first pieces of music, different...
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The Oldest Known Photographs of India (1863–1870)
After about a century of indirect company rule, India became a full-fledged British colony in 1858....
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The Evolution of Animation, 1833–2017: From the Phenakistiscope to Pixar
This year has given us occasion to revisit the 1928 Disney cartoon Steamboat Willie, what with...
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Around The World in 1896: See Colorized & Upscaled Footage of Egypt, Venice, Istanbul, New York City, London & More
The YouTube channel Lost in Time has taken footage from the legendary Lumière brothers, originally shot...
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Laurence Fishburne Reads a Former Slave’s Incredible Letter to His Old Master (1865)
Lawrence Fishburne brings a degree of gravity to his roles offered by few other living actors....
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A Day in Tokyo: A 1968 Film Captures a City Reborn 23 Years After Its Destruction
During World War II, Tokyo sustained heavy damage, especially with the bombings conducted by the U.S....
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180,000 Years of Religion Charted on a “Histomap” in 1943
For many, even most of us moderns, the central religious choice is a simple one: adhere...
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When Frank Lloyd Wright Designed a Plan to Turn Ellis Island Into a Futuristic Jules Verne-Esque City (1959)
The very words “Ellis Island” bring to mind a host of sepia-toned images, shaped by both...
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An Architectural Tour of Sagrada Família, Antoni Gaudí’s Audacious Cathedral That’s Been Under Construction for 142 Years
In less than a year and a half, the centenary of Antoni Gaudí’s death will be...
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An Animated Introduction to the Rosetta Stone, and How It Unlocked Our Understanding of Egyptian Hieroglyphs
In 1799, Napoleon’s army encountered a curious artifact in Egypt, a black stone that featured writing...
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An Introduction to the Astrolabe, the Medieval Smartphone
Image by Anders Sandberg, via Wikimedia Commons Asked to imagine the character of everyday life in...
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The Book of Colour Concepts: A New 800-Page Celebration of Color Theory, Including Works by Newton, Goethe, and Hilma af Klint
The Book of Colour Concepts will soon be published by Taschen in a multilingual edition, containing...