A mysterious package received by Cambridge University Library over a century ago has finally been opened and its contents contained a cache of posters from the early 20th-century.
Cambridge University Library
Posted inBooks
Too Fragile to Open, World’s Oldest Multicolor Printed Book Is Digitized
The 17th-century Manual of Calligraphy and Painting (Shi zhu zhai shu hua pu) is so fragile that until digitization no one was allowed to open it.
Posted inIn Brief
Digitized Sketchbooks Bring Darwin’s ‘Beagle’ Voyage to Life
Sailing aboard the HMS Beagle from 1833 to 1835, artist Conrad Martens kept sketchbooks of the landscapes, people, and animals the expedition encountered.
Posted inArt
The Pre-Tabloid Art of 19th-Century Crime
People have always loved a good lurid story, the more complicated by family twists and accented by violence the better. Back in the 19th century, thousands of chapbooks were printed in Spain and England that chronicled grisly crimes and romantic intrigue for the public, and since a large part of the population was illiterate, there were always great images to catch the curious eye.
