Maria Bochkareva by Boris Losin, 22 November 1917
We know a number of female soldiers from Russian history. Many of them, aviators and snipers, were praised as war heroes during the Great Patriotic War. Speaking of personal bravery on a battlefield, there is no-one quite like Maria Bochkareva – “the Jeanne d’Arc of Russia”, during…
The fenland town of King’s Lynn has a long history, and unsurprisingly a few dark tales have been remembered and passed on through generations of townspeople over the years. Once a thriving …
Edith Tudor-Hart, self-portrait 1936
Mark Richards explores the controversial work of photographer Edith Tudor-Hart and her secret life as a Soviet agent in London during the Cold War…
The lit message running around the Times Building read, “VJ, VJ, VJ, VJ” as George Mendonsa grabbed a stranger and kissed her. Two seconds later the moment was gone, but Alfred Eisenstaedt an…
Source: August 14, 1945, A Kiss in Times Square – Today in History
Merian C. Cooper was born in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. He was the youngest of his siblings and at the age of six, he started to dream about exploration and adventures, a common dream am…
Source: Merian C. Cooper, extraordinary life of a hero of 2 nations and King Kong | Pacific Paratrooper
Throughout the period, the “secret sauce” of Ottoman power was an army of élite infantry called “Janissaries”. Janissaries were Christian slaves, usually taken as spoils of…
Deep under the streets of London and its snarl of urban traffic is a virtually unknown railway that for 75 years was an artery in Britain’s postal network. Seventy feet below ground, the Post Offic…
Source: The History of the Mailrail | Enough of this Tomfoolery!
What do you know of the Hartlepool Monkey and the “Monkey Hangers”? I certainly knew nothing of the tale until I stumbled across it. Legend says that a shipwrecked monkey was hanged as …
Source: Hanging a Monkey as a French Spy During the Napoleonic Wars | ReginaJeffers’s Blog
Almost every story and discussion about the bitter Dutch Hungerwinter of 1944-45 would feature the photo above, Boy with a Pan (“Jongen met het pannetje” in Dutch) — an iconic ima…
Source: Hungerwinter | Iconic Photos
I went to see Dunkirk earlier this week. Not the town but the film of the same title written and directed by Christopher Nolan. It is a remarkable piece of art but is it a good film? And is it historically accurate? And does that in fact matter? I went with a completely open mind and was determined to leave my historian’s hat firmly at the door. Trouble is, I went…
Allied Australian troops walk through the remains of Chateau Wood, Passchendaele 29 October 1917. © IWM E(AUS) 1220.
Today – 31 July – marks one hundred years since the start of the Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres, 31 July – 10 November 1917), Britain’s major offensive against German forces in the Flanders region of Belgium.
The ultimate aim was to liberate the occupied Channel ports to the north of Ypres, neutralising the U-boat threat to North Sea shipping and take the pressure off…
Source: Remembered: The Battle of Passchendaele | Heritage Calling
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below. W…
Source: How red poppies came to be given out on Memorial Day | The Cotton Boll Conspiracy
Caricatures of England and France: the effete French dancing master meets sturdy John Bull. The punchline of this cartoon is a [pretty lame] pun. The English tax collector wants to collect tax on hops (used for making beer) and he understands that the dancing master “deals [in hops] very extensively.”
Source: French Revolution Émigrés in England, a Guest Post from Lona Manning | ReginaJeffers’s Blog
In July 1937 a Jewish émigré from Nazi Germany became the first female war photographer to die on assignment. At the age of 26, Gerda Taro was just starting to make a name for herself and had alrea…
Source: Gerda Taro,A forgotten photojournalist – artinmanyforms
Shortly before noon on a Thursday 11th April 1912, Titanic dropped her screw-anchors into the murky seabed, some two miles out from the County Cork seaport of Queenstown (now better known as Cóbh).
Queenstown had been a vital port for Britain’s Navy for several centuries. During the 19th century, it evolved into the foremost port in Ireland, dispatching convicts by the hundred to Australia and emigrants by the thousand to North America. With the evolution of luxury travel, it became one of the key trans-Atlantic ports ocean liners to’ing and fro’ing between the USA and Europe.
And now, the sun-drenched town was bedecked in celebratory bunting as people poured in from miles around to…
Cook and Enjoy
A photographer's view of the world - words and images to inspire your travels and your dreams
Roaming, at home and abroad
Jane Austen, her letters & other literary digressions
A place for my thoughts
The only way I know
Mostly photographs with some words by this arty scientist...
Viewing movies in a different light
Textile Artist and Teacher
Smile! You’re at the best WordPress.com site ever
Bohemian Stuff
pulseless electrical activity.
mistermuse, half-poet and half-wit
Poetry, Facts, Fiction, Inspired by Travel, Art, Science, Nature & Philosophy
Historian * Author * Presenter * Speaker * Guide
Not so much Rage Against the Machine as Slightly Peeved the Taps Won't Work
Bringing back the forgotten
Freelance journalist
Permanenter Ausstellungsraum
BIDDING HAS NOW CLOSED.
Writing about writing; words about the world
Writing about current events from a historical perspective.
I LEAVE YOUR ROAD TO WALK ON MY GRASS.
The Casual Past
Words and images from the past
The adventures of Janice Duke and her Magical Travelling Paint Box
Creator and Author of The Adventures of Eric Seagull 'Storyteller' series
A repository for movies from the silent era
Art as a Sensory
Musings, Memories and Miscellanea
Daily summary of the life/movie world.
Author site of S. Jackson & A. Raymond
History, technology, books and baseball.
THE CONTEMPORARY ART MAGAZINE
Memoir, poetry, & writing theory
faces gourmet world of fashion, design and art
Lifestyle magazine and Readers Digest
Suffering ink-stained fingers and occasional staple wounds to bring you wonderful images of late 20th century advertising and paperworks
Never get lost in the Sauce
Theatre, Film and TV.
Compelling Stories of Russian History
Photography Blog by Chris Egon Searle
Reclaiming my inner badass at 50
Watercolor paintings
"Tell me a fact, and I'll learn. Tell me a truth, and I'll believe. But tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever." - Steve Sabol, NFL Films
