Nineteenth Century
Tipu’s Tiger
Fascinating article here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Nov 14, 2014 -
Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Art, Death, Dictators, Tyrants and Other Harsh Rulers, Puppets and Automatons, Nineteenth Century
The Fate of Fleas, 1894
via Jennifer Wallis
Posted By: Alex - Thu Nov 06, 2014 -
Comments (6)
Category: Insects and Spiders, Nineteenth Century
Happy Nutcrack Night!
Original article here.
Who knew that Halloween used to be a time of divination for romance?
LOVE TESTS OF HALLOWEEN tells of other forgotten customs.
Whether you are roasting your lover's nuts, or going door-to-door for candy, have a swell night!
Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 31, 2014 -
Comments (5)
Category: Holidays, Superstition, Nineteenth Century
Octagon Houses
For a brief time in the USA, eight-sided houses were a thing. Based on the crackpot theories of one fellow.
The example above can be found in my native Rhode Island. I used to marvel at it all the time when I was younger.
Read the history here.
Order a book here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 20, 2014 -
Comments (10)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Eccentrics, Nineteenth Century
The Edibility of Animal Spleens
Read the whole four pages here.
A tip of the hat to pal Brad V. for finding this one.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 08, 2014 -
Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Junk Food, Nineteenth Century
American Cornball
Christopher Miller's new book is a must-have for any WU-vie, detailing with comprehensive wit all the old humor tropes that once delighted millions, but are now just plain weird, but with a residual underlying universality.
Read a sample here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 05, 2014 -
Comments (2)
Category: Humor, Stereotypes and Cliches, Books, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century
Causes of Lunacy
I love these reasons for being committed to the lunatic asylum, as given in this report for the year 1836.
"Repelled eruption" confused me, until I found this sentence from a text of the same era: "If the insanity succeeds the suppression of a cutaneous disease, of a fetter, an erysipelas, or any other repelled eruption, vesicatories are the means, par excellence : they are preferably applied upon the place where the disease at first existed."
And almost thirty years later, many of the "causes" were still present, as seen below in this report for the year 1891.
Browse through more reports here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Sep 16, 2014 -
Comments (8)
Category: Experts and Authority Figures, Nineteenth Century, Brain Damage
A Singular Will
Source: Notes and Queries, Nov 6, 1858.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 13, 2014 -
Comments (4)
Category: Death, Law, Nineteenth Century
The Dog Exterminator
An advertisement in The Wheel and Cycling Trade Review, August 1893. This seems to be similar to the pepper spray that mailmen carry nowadays, but with a more colorful name. [via What the Apothecary Ordered]
Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 28, 2014 -
Comments (12)
Category: Advertising, Nineteenth Century
Heidelberg Beer Club
I came across this in the Washington Post (Mar 27, 1892). I like the idea that the ability to drink a gallon of beer in one sitting makes you "beer honorable".
Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 26, 2014 -
Comments (6)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants, Nineteenth Century
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |