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  • Article

Vivekananda’s journey

How a young Indian monk’s travels around the world inspired modern yoga.

  • Article

The yogi as hermit, warrior, criminal and showman

How the modern world changed the life and reputation of the yogi.

  • Article

Yoga gets physical

Modern yoga owes a debt to the physical culture movement that created a world obsessed with health and fitness.

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  • Indirect percussion method practised by Wintun Indians of North America in manufacturing stone implements
  • Letters and notes on the manners, customs, and condition of the North American Indians / by Geo. Catlin ; written during eight years' travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America. In 1832, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39.
  • North American Indians : being letters and notes on their manners, customs, and conditions, written during eight years' travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America, 1832-1839 / by George Catlin ; with three hundred and twenty illustrations, carefully engraved from the author's original paintings.
  • North American Indians : being letters and notes on their manners, customs, and conditions, written during eight years' travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America, 1832-1839 / by George Catlin ; with three hundred and twenty illustrations, carefully engraved from the author's original paintings.
  • North American Indians : being letters and notes on their manners, customs, and conditions, written during eight years' travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America, 1832-1839 / by George Catlin ; with three hundred and twenty illustrations, carefully engraved from the author's original paintings.
  • Human and animal skulls placed on the ground as offerings by the Mandan Indians of North America. Coloured aquatint by S. Himely after Ch. Bodmer, ca. 1843.
  • Pipe, argillite shale, very fine carving with intricately interlacing totemic figures of animals and supernatural creatures. Collected by the late Mr. George Roberts of Hudson's bay company. Haida Indians, North West Coast of America, Queen Charlotte Islands.
  • Camassia leichtlinii (Baker)S.Watson Hyacinthaceae. Great Camas, Quamash. The species was named for Maximillian Leichtlin (1831-1910 of Baden , Germany, bulb enthusiast who corresponded with J.G. Baker at Kew. Bulbous herb. Distribution: North America. The bulbs of Camassia species were eaten by the Native Americans, the Nez Perce, after cooking by steaming for a day - which suggests they may be poisonous raw. They gave them to the American explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clerk, on their expedition (1804-1806) when they ran out of food. The bulbs of the similar looking 'Death camus', Toxicoscordion venenosum have been fatal when ingested by mistake (RBG Kew on-line). Steroidal saponins, which are precursors in the manufacture of steroids and cytotoxic activity has been detected in the sap of the bulbs. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench Asteraceae. Coneflower. Distribution: North America. Austin (2004) records that the roots were chewed, or used as a tincture for coughs by the Choctaw. It was combined with Rhus typhina to treat venereal disease by the Delaware. Very little record of this being used by Native Americans, who used E. angustifolia very widely - Regarded as a panacea and magical herb. This and E. pallida were used to treat snakebite, spider bite, cancer, toothache, burns, sores, wounds, flu and colds. E. purpurea in modern times has been used as an ‘immunostimulant’, but is known to cause a fall in white cell count, and to be purely a placebo. Licensed for use as a Traditional Herbal Medicine, which does not require proof of efficacy, in the UK. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench Asteraceae. Coneflower. Distribution: North America. Austin (2004) records that the roots were chewed, or used as a tincture for coughs by the Choctaw. Combined with Rhus typhina to treat venereal disease by the Delaware. Very little record of this being used by Native Americans, who used E. angustifolia very widely - Regarded as a panacea and magical herb. This and E. pallida were used to treat snakebite, spider bite, cancer, toothache, burns, sores, wounds, flu and colds. E. purpurea in modern times has been used as an ‘immunostimulant’, but is known to cause a fall in white cell count, and to be purely a placebo. Licensed for use as a Traditional Herbal Medicine, which does not require proof of efficacy, in the UK. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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