New Old Time

Flowering prickly pear cactus in a 17th-century Dutch botanical glasshouse surrounded by exotic cacti in terracotta pots, golden afternoon light

The Armoured Flower: Two Centuries of Cactus Bo...

When the first cactus arrived in Europe, nobody quite knew what to make of it — leafless, armoured with spines, flowering with improbable extravagance. The European response produced, over two...

The Armoured Flower: Two Centuries of Cactus Bo...

When the first cactus arrived in Europe, nobody quite knew what to make of it — leafless, armoured with spines, flowering with improbable extravagance. The European response produced, over two...

San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge vintage travel collage in black and gold with Painted Ladies, cable cars and bay views

San Francisco on Foot: A Flâneur's Guide to the...

There are cities you visit and cities you walk. San Francisco is emphatically the latter — a city that rewards the slow traveller who puts away the map, follows the...

San Francisco on Foot: A Flâneur's Guide to the...

There are cities you visit and cities you walk. San Francisco is emphatically the latter — a city that rewards the slow traveller who puts away the map, follows the...

Young Regency naturalist Kenelm Henry Digby sketching a land tortoise at a campaign table outdoors, watercolours and field notebook open, golden afternoon light

Shells, Scales, and Watercolour: Kenelm Henry D...

Before photography and chromolithography, the watercolour manuscript occupied a unique position in the history of science — at once a scientific document and a work of art. Among the most...

Shells, Scales, and Watercolour: Kenelm Henry D...

Before photography and chromolithography, the watercolour manuscript occupied a unique position in the history of science — at once a scientific document and a work of art. Among the most...

18th-century silhouette artist cutting a black paper profile portrait by candlelight, seated model in period dress in profile, shadow projected on a pale wall

The Art of the Shadow: Silhouette Portraiture a...

Before photography, a painted portrait was a luxury available only to the wealthy. Then, in the mid-eighteenth century, a new form emerged that needed only a candle, a steady hand,...

The Art of the Shadow: Silhouette Portraiture a...

Before photography, a painted portrait was a luxury available only to the wealthy. Then, in the mid-eighteenth century, a new form emerged that needed only a candle, a steady hand,...

1940s ophthalmologist pointing to a Snellen eye chart during a patient examination, vintage black and white photography

Can You Read the Bottom Line? The Story of Herm...

Walk into any optometrist's office in the world and you will find it: a white chart, rows of black letters descending from a large E to a barely legible bottom...

Can You Read the Bottom Line? The Story of Herm...

Walk into any optometrist's office in the world and you will find it: a white chart, rows of black letters descending from a large E to a barely legible bottom...

Late 19th century German classroom with botanical Wandtafeln wall charts hanging at the front, wooden school desks in rows, tall windows and natural light, Wilhelmine educational atmosphere

The Wandtafeln: Gottlieb von Koch and the Botan...

In the classrooms of Wilhelmine Germany, the walls spoke. The Wandtafeln — botanical wall charts — were the visual technology of scientific education: large, precise, and beautiful, designed to make...

The Wandtafeln: Gottlieb von Koch and the Botan...

In the classrooms of Wilhelmine Germany, the walls spoke. The Wandtafeln — botanical wall charts — were the visual technology of scientific education: large, precise, and beautiful, designed to make...