Stories
- Article
Fantastic beasts and unnatural history
Find out how a 17th-century compendium of the natural world came to present fantastical beasts –like dragons – as real, living creatures.
- In pictures
Putti of science
Chubby little winged boys known as putti frequently adorn scientific illustrations. Sometimes portrayed as reverent and sometimes cheeky, they guide our pursuit of knowledge.
- Article
Epidemic threats and racist legacies
Epidemiology is the systematic, data-driven study of health and disease in populations. But as historian Jacob Steere-Williams suggests, this most scientific of fields emerged in the 19th century imbued with a doctrine of Western imperialism – a legacy that continues to influence how we talk about disease.
- Article
Native Americans and the dehumanising force of the photograph
In the second part of Native Americans through the 19th-century lens, we delve deeper into the ambivalent messages within the images.
Catalogue
- Archives and manuscripts
Sigmund Freud and Art: His Personal Collection of Antiquities
Date: 1990Reference: PP/RYC/E.12/2/29Part of: Rycroft, Dr Charles (1914-1998)- Books
Antiquities of Mexico: comprising fac-similes of ancient Mexican paintings and hieroglyphics, preserved in the Royal Libraries of Paris, Berlin, and Dresden; in the Imperial Library of Vienna; in the Vatican Library; in the Borgian Museum at Rome; in the Library of the Institute at Bologna; and in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Together with the Monuments of New Spain, by M. Dupaix: with their respective scales of measurement and accompanying descriptions. The whole illustrated by many valuable inedited manuscripts / by Lord Kingsborough; the drawings, on stone, by A. Aglio.
Date: 1831-1848- Pictures
- Online
The evolution of a fox riding a goose into a writer seated at his typewriter (or a pianist?) - which in turn evolves into accordion, bellows, money-bag, and handcuffs; representing Darwin's theories. Wood engraving after C. Bennett, 1863.
Bennett, Charles H. (Charles Henry), 1829-1867.Date: 1863Reference: 12101iPart of: The origin of species, dedicated by natural selection to Dr. Charles Darwin- Books
Notes on some Indian species of the genus Phlebotomus. Part XIII, Methods of collection and preservation / by J.A. Sinton.
Sinton, J. A. (John Alexander), 1884-1956.Date: [1925]- Books
- Online
A catalogue of the genuine and intire collection of Roman, British, Saxon and English coins and medals, in gold, silver and copper, of the ingenious preserver of antiquities, Emmanuel Austin, Of Bartholomew - Close, deceas'd; Which, by Order of his Widow and Executors, will be sold by auction, By Mr. Gerard, At his House in Litchfield-Street, St. Ann's, Soho, On Thursday, the 28th of April, 1774. - To be view'd on Tuesday the 26th, and 'till the Time of Sale, which will begin at Twelve O'Clock precisely. - Catalogues to be had, gratis, at Mr. Gerard's aforesaid.
Gerard, Mr. (John), -1794.Date: 1774]