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  • Article

Succumbing to stimming in dance

As a child, Susanna Dye felt ashamed of their need to stim, but has found a way to incorporate these repetitive movements into their creative practice as a dancer and facilitator.

  • Article

Illuminated manuscripts, illuminating medicines

From rare bugs to exorbitantly priced plant parts, find out more about the artistic and medical uses of pigments from the past.

  • Book extract

The shape of thought

Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s description of the moment in 1887 when he saw a brain cell for the first time never fails to move neuroscientist Richard Wingate to tears. Here he captures that enduring sense of wonder.

  • Photo story

‘My Hair Is Not…’

Eight Black people talk about their relationship with their hair – their hairstyle history, their experiences, and how they decided to have natural hair.

All stories (10)

Images

  • Two men preparing dye for fabric. Watercolour by an Indian painter.
  • Buckingham's Dye for the whiskers ... : Hall's Vegetable Sicilian Hair Renewer will restore gray or faded hair to its original color as in youth ... / R.P. Hall & Co.
  • Buckingham's Dye for the whiskers ... : Hall's Vegetable Sicilian Hair Renewer will restore gray or faded hair to its original color as in youth ... / R.P. Hall & Co.
  • Two Indian men: (left) seated, cutting green produce to shape, and (right) carrying a red bag and two bottles of fluid (ink? dye?). Gouache painting by an Indian artist.
  • Reseda lutea L. Resedaceae Wild Mignonette. Dyers Rocket. Herbaceous plant. Distribution: Eurasia and North Africa. This plant, and in particular R. luteola, is the source of 'weld' a yellow dye from luteolin a flavonoid in the sap. It is said to have been used since the first millennium BC, but curiously Dioscorides, Lyte, Gerard, Lobel, Fuchs, Coles, Quincy, Linnaeus (1782) either do not mention it or make it synonymous with Eruca, Rocket, and make no reference to it as a dye source. The name Resedo means 'I sit up' in Latin, which Stearn (1994) interprets as 'I heal' which makes its absence even more strange. It is noted as the dye source by Bentley (1861). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Xanthorhiza simplicissima Marshall Ranunculaceae. Yellow root. Distribution: North America, where it was discovered by the plant collector and explorer William Bartram in 1773. Austin (2004) reports that of the Native Americans, the Cherokee use the crushed plant to make a yellow dye
  • Dianella tasmanica Hook.f. Phormiaceae Tasman flax lily. Distribution: Australia. A pretty plant, but also a source of fine fibre. The leaves are used for making baskets and the berries as a dye source. No medicinal use found, but the fruit is an irritant
  • Xanthorhiza simplicissima Marshall Ranunculaceae. Yellow root. Distribution: North America, where it was discovered by the plant collector and explorer William Bartram in 1773. Yellow-root. Austin (2004) reports that of the Native Americans, the Cherokee use the crushed plant to make a yellow dye
  • The accomplish'd female instructor: or, a very useful companion for ladies, gentlewomen, and others. In two parts. Part I. Treating of generous breeding and behaviour; choice of company, friendship; the art of speaking well [etc.] ... Part II. Treating of making curious confectionaries, or sweet-meats, jellies, syrups, cordial-waters ... to know good provisions, dye curious colours, whiten ivory ... physical and chyrurgical receipts ... and a great number of other useful and profitable things.
  • The accomplish'd female instructor: or, a very useful companion for ladies, gentlewomen, and others. In two parts. Part I. Treating of generous breeding and behaviour; choice of company, friendship; the art of speaking well [etc.] ... Part II. Treating of making curious confectionaries, or sweet-meats, jellies, syrups, cordial-waters ... to know good provisions, dye curious colours, whiten ivory ... physical and chyrurgical receipts ... and a great number of other useful and profitable things.
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