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Southwestern United States Rock Art Gallery. 'This page is devoted to Native American Rock Art of the Southwestern United States. Currently, most images on this page are from Utah. This will change as time permits.'
Related :- this Precolumbian Collection from Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection (which has an interesting history itself).
posted on May-18-03 at 3:30 AM

The Personality Forge. Create an AI bot, and set it loose.
posted on May-16-03 at 4:29 AM

Online Exhibitions from the Freer and Sackler Galleries. Nice collection of Islamic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and South Asian art; such as Visual Poetry: Paintings and Drawings from Iran; the Cave as Canvas: Hidden Images of Worship along the Silk Road; India through the Lens: Photography 1840-1911, and more.
Of related interest :- aka Kurdistan; photographs and stories from Kurdish history, through Kurdish and Western eyes. 'This site, a borderless space, provides the opportunity to build a collective memory with a people who have no national archive.'
posted on May-13-03 at 2:10 PM

The world's smallest seahorse. 'The creature, to be known as Hippocampus denise, is typically just 16 millimetres long - smaller than most fingernails. Some were found to be just 13 mm long. '
posted on May-12-03 at 2:02 PM

Roadside Peek. Roadside Americana - neon, drive-ins, signs, etc.
posted on May-11-03 at 1:57 PM

54 Word Stories.
posted on May-10-03 at 1:52 PM

NYCASD. Themed photos of New York and Amsterdam.
posted on May-8-03 at 11:16 AM

The Story of Africa , courtesy of the BBC World Service.
posted on May-7-03 at 10:29 AM

The Memory Hole: doctored photo? 'On 9 April 2003, the front page of the London Evening Standard (circulation: 400,000) contained a blurry image supposedly showing a throng of Iraqis in Baghdad celebrating the toppling of Saddam Hussein. What we are really looking at is an incredibly ham-fisted attempt at photo manipulation. ' Opinions?
posted on May-5-03 at 3:58 AM

Beginnings at the Library of Congress. The origins of the Universe, humanity and society as viewed by different cultural and religious traditions; and their attempts to explain it all.
The Talk.Origins Archive presents a more scientific view of physical and biological beginnings.
posted on May-3-03 at 12:17 PM

The Met's Timeline of Art History. From Tibet to ancient Greece by way of Mesoamerica and musical instruments. An index by theme.
posted on May-2-03 at 12:13 PM

19 Princelet Street , Spitalfields. A permanent celebration of London immigrant life.
'Described as the nation's answer to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, 19 Princelet Street in London's East End was refuge to hundreds of Jews fleeing persecution from the Nazis.
posted on May-1-03 at 10:59 AM

The Magic Mirror of Life. An appreciation of the camera obscura.
posted on Apr-29-03 at 11:42 PM

The Timeless Theater. Extensive guide to the cultures of India - architecture, arts, religion etc.
Related interest :- Indian Temples.
posted on Apr-28-03 at 12:39 AM

Mystery Object. What is this?
Another mystery object. And another.
posted on Apr-27-03 at 12:21 AM

Orkneyjar. The history, folklore and traditions of the Orkney Islands - ghost stories, megaliths, and more on this extensive site.
Related interest :- St. Kilda: Death of an Island Republic. A matriarchal society? Via Utopia Britannica: British Utopian Experiments 1325-1945.
More :- the National Trust's St. Kilda website; the Iona community, an ecumenical community founded in 1938 (more about the founding of the monastery on Iona by St. Columba in 563); independent Eigg; life in Westray, one of Orkney's north isles; the Shetland Museum.
posted on Apr-26-03 at 12:18 AM

Child Slaves in Ghana. Short article and photos, from AllAfrica.com.
Related :- Ghana's trapped slaves. "The girls are my slaves - they are the property of my shrine"
posted on Apr-25-03 at 12:02 AM

Gods of Japan. A photo-dictionary. 'This photo library and dictionary is a labor of love. After moving to Kamakura in 1993, I became intrigued by the many deities and faces of Buddhism and Shintoism. There are over 650 photos in this library ... '
Related :- Quirky Japan. This site is just fabulous. 'Are you tired of shrines and temples, reconstructed ferro-concrete castles and tea ceremonies? Do you like to get off the beaten track? Would you like to meet Japanese people who do not meet the conformist stereotype? Japan, behind the conservative grey suits and formal bows, is a country quirkier than you can ever imagine. The Quirky Japan Homepage provides information about oddities such as the The Meguro Parasitalogical Museum, the Thousand Person Bathtub, Love Hotels, temple lodging, and the Yakiimo man (the ice cream man's evil twin). '
Related interest :- Lost Japan. Here's an interesting interview with the author, Alex Kerr; and here's a piece about his wonderful house.
posted on Apr-23-03 at 2:49 AM

Russian History. 'Few nations have as colorful and vivid a history as Russia. At times torn between the East and the West, sometimes buffering the two, Russia has always been a pot of enormous ethnic diversity which refuses to melt. The result has been a mixture of socialism and capitalism, of east and west, Christianity and Islam with a bit of social experimentation thrown in. '
A Chronology of Russian History; the Russian Assembly of Nobility; the History of Moscow; the Khazars; the History of Jews in Russia; Treasures of the Tsars; Soviet and Russian Technology; Soviet Archives Exhibit.
posted on Apr-22-03 at 2:20 AM

Planetarium. A puzzle-story in 12 weekly installments.
posted on Apr-21-03 at 2:18 AM

The Flight of Ducks. An 'online documentary' about a 1933 expedition to Central Australia (containing culturally sensitive material).
What are songlines? 'Songlines, or Yiri in the Walpiri language, are tracks across the landscape created by Mythical Aboriginal ancestors when they rose out of the dark Earth and travelled, creating mountains, valleys, waterholes - all the physical features of the land ... '
Songlines art.
New York Songlines. Walking tours of Manhattan streets.
posted on Apr-20-03 at 1:22 AM

Shiseido Women. 'In Japan, womens fashion, like makeup, continues to evolve, reflecting the moods and mores of the times. The following photographs of women provide tantalizing glimpses into some of the radical changes that have marked the past century. '
Related interest :- An American Visit to Japan, 1923.
posted on Apr-18-03 at 11:44 AM

North: An Intuitive Arctic Exploration. 'Small stories', connected in some way with the Arctic region. Start exploring.
posted on Apr-17-03 at 11:21 AM

Mt. Moosilauke. Folklore and stories around a mountain in New Hampshire, with a nice interactive map.
Related interest :- Nos Histoires de L'Ile, historical photographs of a French community in Maine.
posted on Apr-16-03 at 11:18 AM

Ethiopian Icons: Faith and Science. Richly hued religious art from an African Christian culture.
posted on Apr-15-03 at 11:13 AM

Mesopotamia at the British Museum.
posted on Apr-14-03 at 3:46 AM

'Barefoot Gen is a vivid autobiographical story. Artist Keiji Nakazawa was only seven years old when the Atomic Bomb destroyed his beautiful home city of Hiroshima. The Artist's "Gen" manga (visual novel), tells the tale of one family's struggle to survive in the dreadful shadow of war ... '
"I named my main character Gen in the hope that he would become a root or source of strength for a new generation, one that can tread the charred soil of Hiroshima barefoot, feel the earth beneath its feet, and have the strength to say "NO" to nuclear weapons.... "
More survivors' stories :- Nagasaki Nightmare, the art of the hibakusha, or A-bomb survivors.
Voice of Hibakusha includes eye-witness accounts of the atom bombing of Hiroshima. Here are more testimonies of survivors. (Via the A-Bomb WWW Museum). A personal record of Hiroshima A-bomb survival, posted to a message board, with responses from readers.
Remembering Nagasaki, a slide-show of Nagasaki after the A-bomb.
The story of Sadako, an A-bomb victim, and the Thousand Paper Cranes project she inspired.
posted on Apr-13-03 at 3:39 AM

The Ethnographic Lens: Images from the Realm of a Rain Queen. Between 1936 and 1938 social anthropologists Eileen and Jack Krige undertook intensive fieldwork in the north-eastern regions of South Africa among the Lobedu people whose chief Modjadji was widely acclaimed as a rainmaker.'
'In 1943 their book 'The Realm of a Rain Queen' was published and has remained in print ever since. Some of the photographs taken by the Kriges were used as illustrations in the book but many remained unpublished and little known ...' Via this collection of archaeological and anthropological resources from the South African Museum.
Princess Makobo Modjadji of the Bolobedu has just been crowned as the new Rain Queen, Modjadji VI. A light drizzle greeted the inauguration, which may be a good sign.
The Rain Queen was the inspiration for H. Rider Haggard's 'She Who Must Be Obeyed'.
More on the world of the Rain Queen - including biographical details on the last Rain Queen, and her relationships with politicians such as Nelson Mandela in a changine South Africa - here.
posted on Apr-12-03 at 3:36 AM

The Bass Museum of Beer. The history of the Black Horse, Findon, West Sussex. A guide to historic pub interiors, from the Campaign for Real Ale. Pub names for all, an amusing pastime. An online guide to pub games. Flash versions of pub games. Unusual pub names of Lancashire. The history of Coaching inns. An interactive map of pubs and clubs of Oxford. Venus and Adonis at the White Hart Inn, St. Albans (you may disagree with the scholarship, but the images are nice). The Star Inn, Bath, an historic pub. A virtual pub crawl of Hull. A virtual pub crawl of Shrewsbury. The Bird and Baby, favoured by Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. (More on Tolkien's Oxford). Guide to Gloucestershire pubs. The Crooked House in the West Midlands (more here via the Strangest Pubs in Britain). The World Marbles Championship takes place every year at a pub in Sussex.
posted on Apr-11-03 at 12:29 AM

Afghanistan 1969-1974. Many photographs of the landscapes and people of Afghanistan as was. 'Searching the internet at the beginning of the year 2001 for "Kabul & museum" or for "Bamiyan" displays alarming news. This is why I'd like to put my old photographs of Afghanistan of the years 1969, 1970, and 1974 into the WWW to preserve a vivid memory of the treasures collected in the museum in Darulaman and of an Afghanistan as it used to be years ago ... ' (Also in German).
Related :- Lost and Stolen Images: Afghanistan, including a section on the Bamiyan Buddhas and some images from the Kabul Museum (via the Huntingdon Archive of Buddhist and related art).
posted on Apr-9-03 at 12:21 AM

Cultural Entomology. The role of insects in human cultures from every continent :- religion, art, literature, entertainment, and as pets.
Related :- insect drawings used as teaching aids; insects as food.
posted on Apr-8-03 at 12:17 AM

Florida Folk Art. 'Welcome to my online Outsider Art Gallery. I collect outsider art, also known as Folk Art or Visionary Art ... '
More folk art :- Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, a Kansas City Public TV project about the art and oddities of roadside America; the Yard Dog Folk Art Gallery ('folk art of the South'), a nice site from Texas; the Garde Rail Gallery; Folky Art; Four Florida Folk Artists (via Interesting Ideas). Not quite folk art but an interesting idea nonetheless :- the Miniature Book Library, an ongoing mail art project (which invites participants).
posted on Apr-7-03 at 12:12 AM

The Century Project (not suitable for work) 'is a series of nude photographs accompanied by highly personal and moving statements by women whose lives span 100 years. The words and pictures combine to form a powerful statement about body image, society's portrayal of women in the media, sexuality, pornography, and women's health issues. For some, this is pretty controversial stuff...yet the simple fact that women have invited me (a man) to exhibit and speak in Churches (3 times!) and on the campuses of Colleges and Universities, by itself speaks volumes about the way in which Century has been received, and what it's value has been ... '
'Life is at its fullest at 94.' - Mary.
posted on Apr-6-03 at 12:07 AM

'A colossal squid has been caught in Antarctic waters, the first example of Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni retrieved virtually intact from the surface of the ocean. ' Related (old news from January) :- giant squid attacks boat.
More squid sites :- Search for Giant Squid, a Smithsonian exhibit about a 1999 expedition. 'Whether living or extinct, on land or at sea, in literature or in life, large animals have long fascinated people. The largest animals have been known and hunted since prehistory: whales, walruses, elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, and large fishes... However, one large animal has gone almost unnoticed or certainly unobserved in its habitat. That animal is the giant squid. Although these animals have been found in the nets of commercial fishermen, in the stomachs of sperm whales, and washed ashore on different continents, no scientific information has been gathered by direct observations of live giant squid ... '
The UnMuseum's article on the giant squid.
posted on Apr-3-03 at 12:52 AM

World War 1 Memoirs and Diaries , by soldiers, nurses and chaplains. 'With the advent of the world wide web, an opportunity arose for the descendants of many survivors to publish fragments of diary entries for the education and interest of others. '
The diary of Edwin Jones, who fought in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Via the firstworldwar.com website, which also features poetry and prose (including an overview of British World War 1 satire and how it reflected the class system at the time); propaganda posters; and miscellaneous features on everything from the Christmas truce to the disputed sexuality of T.E. Lawrence.
Related :- an interview with one of the last British WW1 survivors, aged 107 ('I survived the trenches - and would never go back'), and the BBC's 80th anniversary site, which includes five poignant, sometimes tragic, letters from soldiers to family and friends.
posted on Mar-31-03 at 1:14 PM

A Celebration of Women Writers. 'Women have written almost every imaginable type of work: novels, poems, letters, biographies, travel books, religious commentaries, histories, economic and scientific works... '
'All too often, works by women, and resources about women writers, are hard to find. We attempt to provide easy access to available on-line information. ' Categorised by country, century and ethnicity; with links to some interesting specialty collections :- 19th century African-American writers (including slave narratives); school stories (covers and links); children's book illustrators; travel writers; early Japanese poets and poet-painters; sci fi, and more.
posted on Mar-30-03 at 1:07 PM

The Himalayan Art Project. An online collection of Himalayan visual arts and heritage, '...containing over 8,000 records, 10,000 images and 700 thematic sets'. The exhibits page is good: here's a collection of photographs of Tibet as it was in the 1950's, and here's an essay on the history of 'visual Dharma'.
Some related links :- Mongolian stories and anecdotes about politics, religion, sport and horses (Mongolians belong to the same religion as Tibetans); a privileged witness to a sky burial (via the Tibetan Studies Virtual Library); the Tibetan game of rebirth.
posted on Mar-29-03 at 10:59 AM

The Stone Pages. 'Over the last 14 years we have personally visited and photographed all 529 archæological sites you will find in these pages (117 in the six national sections and 412 in our Tours section), creating the first Web guide to European megaliths and other prehistoric sites, online since February 1996.'
Related :- Ancient Stones, a personal photographic guide to the stone circles of Britain; Megalithic Walks, diaries of days out visiting some of these places; the Prehistoric Monuments of Wales; the interactive Megalith Map. These sites also have great links pages to more megalithic resources.
posted on Mar-28-03 at 6:35 AM

The G.I. Jones Photographic Archive of Southeastern Nigerian Art and Culture. 'This is an archive of digitized photographs depicting the arts and cultures of southeastern Nigeria. The collection includes examples from Ibibio, Igbo, Ijo and Ogoni speaking peoples. All of the photographs were taken in the 1930s by the late G.I. Jones, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge. The majority of the images are from the Igbo speaking regions where Jones conducted most of his research. The materials included here represent only a sample of the complete Jones collection. The photographs are unique for the creative brilliance of the art represented, the quality of the photography itself, and the cultural and historical significance of photographic records from this time period in Nigeria.'
Some related links :-
American Museum Congo Expedition 1909-1915. A truly interesting site, which includes field notes, photographs, watercolours, historical maps, anthropoligical objects, and so forth.
A Clickable Map of the Art of the African Continent, via Africa: The Art of a Continent.
The Woods Collection of African Art, with another clickable map.
Nigerian Stories.
posted on Mar-27-03 at 6:30 AM

Shostakovichiana. Documents and articles about one of the twentieth century's greatest composers, some of them focusing on the problems he encountered working under a totalitarian system. Some highlights :- 'Do not judge me too harshly': anti-Communism in Shostakovich's letters; 'You must remember!': Shostakovich's alleged 1937 interrogation; About Shostakovich's 1948 downfall. More related material can be found at the Music under Soviet Rule page.
There are a number of interesting sites dealing with music expression and censorship generally. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum has a site on the music of the concentration camps - 'While popular songs dating from before the war remained attractive as escapist fare, the ghetto, camp, and partisan settings also gave rise to a repertoire of new works. ' Here's a Guardian article on the Blue Notes, who 'fought apartheid in South Africa with searing jazz'. Here's a page about the Drapchi 14, Tibetan nuns who 'recorded independence songs and messages to their families on a tape recorder' (and were subsequently punished). Finally, a page on records which were banned from BBC radio during the 1991 Gulf War (example :- 'Walk Like an Egyptian').
posted on Mar-26-03 at 1:12 AM

90 Days in Cambodia as a travel writer and election observer.
Related :- Cambodia in Modern History: Beauty and Darkness focuses on the Khmer Rouge period, and also has a nice section on Cambodian art.
posted on Mar-23-03 at 11:20 AM

The Ngadjonji. The history and culture of a Queensland rainforest tribe.
"Theirs was a culture with no chiefs or kings. If the senior men and women of each clan had implied status, it was because of their wisdom and the highest attributes a (Ngadjonji) could possess was a keen memory and great skill in hunting, gathering and bushcraft ... "
Of related interest :- the Aboriginal Memorial, in Canberra, created by 43 artists of the Ramingining community in Arnhem Land.
posted on Mar-22-03 at 11:16 AM

Sweet Old Song. '91-year-old Howard 'Louie Bluie' Armstrong has two great loves: his music and artist Barbara Ward. Their artistic and musical collaboration brings to life nearly a century of African-American experience.'
View a gallery of Howard and Barbara Ward Armstrong's art, and read a bit about their personal histories here. Take a look at the illustrated children's book they have collaborated on here.
posted on Mar-21-03 at 11:12 AM

Wild West Yorkshire Nature Diary. 'My diary describes a year in the life of woodland, field, marsh, river, canal . . . and a fairly wild back garden . . . in the Calder valley in coal measures country near Wakefield.'
Richard Bell's nature diary has been online since 1998.
The site's links page leads to more nature diaries and related resources :
Ackworth School's natural history diary, Roseberry Topping, an environmentally friendly slug trap, Yorkshire dialect verse, wildscapes from Texas, Notes from Pure Land Mountain (a journal from countryside Japan), and more.
Although it's not linked, An English Country Garden, chronicling a garden in a small village in Dorset, would not be out of place here; neither would Blackberry Creek Journal, 'a country newsletter about the seasons, animals, gardens and people of a small Michigan farm'. There is a huge collection of gardening journals and homepages here. [more inside]
posted on Mar-20-03 at 11:03 AM

The Fatal Salient. The First World War remembered; the letters and paintings of one of the participants, Harold Sandys Williamson. This and more via The Imperial War Museum's online exhibitions. [more inside]
posted on Mar-19-03 at 10:54 AM

Moscow Life. 49 stories with images of life in and around Moscow, posted between 1995 and 2002. There's an introduction here.
posted on Mar-18-03 at 10:45 AM

A Love of Monsters: Gargoyles & Architectural Details in NYC. 'They crouch in the corners and lurk under windows. They curl around drainpipes and blend into doorways. They're so clever at hiding most folks won't see them at all. '
'But I know where the monsters live. I see them all the time. If your heart is understanding and your eyes remember wonder, then take a quiet stroll with me and see what you can find.'
Self-guided walks, too.
posted on Mar-17-03 at 10:39 AM

The Kunisada Project , dedicated to one of the greatest ukiyo-e artists.
posted on Mar-16-03 at 8:54 AM

The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. Journals, records and some images from the Apollo lunar missions.
posted on Mar-10-03 at 11:38 AM

Art & Life in Africa. A resource on African art and culture. Key Moments in Life is an interesting page which deals with different phases of life. The Peoples Index gives overviews of the different cultures. The snapshots of daily life in Mali and Burkina Faso are also worth a look.
posted on Mar-7-03 at 9:21 AM