It's tale. told by an idiot. full of sound and fury. @anunbornchild - Tumblr Blog

artist-gauguin

Young Girl Dreaming (Study of a Child Asleep), Paul Gauguin

Medium: oil,canvas

deathandmysticism

Brothers of Mercy, Italy, ca. 1900

deathandmysticism

An American text-book of obstetrics, 1897

deathandmysticism

Curiosités médico-artistiques, 1907

deathandmysticism

Cesare Ripa, Iconologia, 1603

smithsonianlibrariesarchives

Seals relaxing in what the text refers to as a “Seal’s Dormitory” from Edmond Selous’s The bird watcher in the Shetlands (1905).

Full text here.

smithsonianlibrariesarchives

A diagram of two Asian monitor lizard engaged in combat (though to the untrained eye it may look like they’re hugging it out) from Revue suisse de zoologie t.69 (1962).

Full text available here.

smithsonianlibrariesarchives

Gerenuks demonstrating their ability to be long (left) and tall (right) from Richard Lydekker’s The game animals of Africa (1908).

Full text here.

smithsonianlibrariesarchives

Costume designs by Walter Schnackenberg. Top: Knight Bluebeard (Ritter Blaubart) (character from the opera of the same name). Middle: a Salamander. Bottom: “The Blue Flame.” Full text here.

smithsonianlibrariesarchives

A lion and unicorn playing chess from James McNeill Whistler's The portfolio : an artistic periodical (1880). From the text: "[...] in the scene on a papyrus in the British Museum of the lion and unicorn playing at chess, though [the lion] is obviously an emblem of royalty, the caricaturist has not aimed at representing majesty. This, however, is of the Roman period, and has probably but little of the Egyptian character."

Full text here.