Refine your search

The results of your search are listed below alongside the search terms you entered on the previous page. You can refine your search by amending any of the parameters in the form and resubmitting it.

Select all Deselect all Add selection to lightbox
Large Small
Thumbnails per page
Andrea Cesalpino (6 June 1519 – 23 February 1603) was an Italian physician, philosopher and botanist.<br/><br/> In his works he classified plants according to their fruits and seeds, rather than alphabetically or by medicinal properties. In 1555, he succeeded Luca Ghini as director of the botanical garden in Pisa. The botanist Pietro Castelli was one of his students.<br/><br/> Cesalpino also did limited work in the field of physiology. He theorized a circulation of the blood. However, he envisioned a 'chemical circulation' consisting of repeated evaporation and condensation of blood, rather than the concept of 'physical circulation' popularized by the writings of William Harvey (1578–1657).
'Flying Tigers' was the popular name of the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force in 1941-1942. The pilots were United States Army (USAAF), Navy (USN), and Marine Corps (USMC) personnel, recruited under Presidential sanction and commanded by Claire Lee Chennault; the ground crew and headquarters staff were likewise mostly recruited from the U.S. military, along with some civilians.<br/><br/> The group consisted of three fighter squadrons with about 20 aircraft each. It trained in Burma before the American entry into World War II with the mission of defending China against Japanese forces. The Tigers' shark-faced fighters remain among the most recognizable of any individual combat aircraft of World War II, and they demonstrated innovative tactical victories when the news in the U.S. was filled with little more than stories of defeat at the hands of the Japanese forces.
The Nine Emperor Gods Festival is a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is observed primarily in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
The Nine Emperor Gods Festival is a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is observed primarily in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
A painting on paper in color and gold leaf from al-Jazari's <i>Kitab fi marifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya</i> (The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices).<br/><br/> Abū al-'Iz Ibn Ismā'īl ibn al-Razāz al-Jazarī (1136–1206) was a polymath: a scholar, inventor, mechanical engineer, craftsman, artist, mathematician and astronomer from Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia, who worked in service of the Artuqid dynasty in Diyarbakır, Asia Minor. He is best known for writing the <i>Kitáb fí ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya</i> (Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices) in 1206, where he described fifty mechanical devices along with instructions on how to construct them.
During the colonial era, just south of Yan’an Donglu (then called Edward VII Avenue) ran the Rue du Consulat – today’s Jinling Donglu – leading from the waterfront to the French Concession. Somewhere off this road was a small lane called Rue Chu Pao San, renamed Xikou Lu after 1949, but since, apparently, swept away in the tide of redevelopment.<br/><br/> In its heyday Rue Chu Pao San rejoiced in the European nickname ‘Blood Alley’ – a lane of teeming vice, brothels and low bars frequented by sailors on shore leave from the Huangpu docks. Ralph Shaw, a Briton who lived in Shanghai during the 1930s, records that Blood Alley fairly swarmed with ‘a legion of Chinese, Korean, Annamite, White Russian, Filipino and Formosan women’, in search of a similar legion of ‘kilted Seaforth Highlanders, tall U.S. Navy men, seamen from the Liverpool tramps, and French Grenadiers’, who ‘had ears only for the girls clinging to them in the half light of dance-floor alcoves’.<br/><br/> Blood Alley, as the name suggests, was a rough and violent place ‘entirely dedicated to wine, women, song and all-night lechery’.
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892) (Japanese: 月岡 芳年; also named Taiso Yoshitoshi 大蘇 芳年) was a Japanese artist and Ukiyo-e woodblock print master.<br/><br/> He is widely recognized as the last great master of Ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock printing. He is additionally regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of Edo period Japan, and the first years of modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration. Like many Japanese, Yoshitoshi was interested in new things from the rest of the world, but over time he became increasingly concerned with the loss of many aspects of traditional Japanese culture, among them traditional woodblock printing.<br/><br/> By the end of his career, Yoshitoshi was in an almost single-handed struggle against time and technology. As he worked on in the old manner, Japan was adopting Western mass reproduction methods like photography and lithography. Nonetheless, in a Japan that was turning away from its own past, he almost singlehandedly managed to push the traditional Japanese woodblock print to a new level, before it effectively died with him.
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡 芳年, 30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892, also named Taiso Yoshitoshi 大蘇 芳年) was a Japanese artist.<br/><br/> He is widely recognized as the last great master of Ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock printing. He is additionally regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of Edo period Japan, and the first years of modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration. Like many Japanese, Yoshitoshi was interested in new things from the rest of the world, but over time he became increasingly concerned with the loss of many aspects of traditional Japanese culture, among them traditional woodblock printing.<br/><br/> Eimei nijūhasshūku (英名 二十八 衆句 or ‘28 Famous Murders with Verse’), also known as the 'Bloody Prints', is a collection of Japanese ukiyo-e from the 1860s, which depicted gruesome acts of murder or torture based on historical events or scenes in Kabuki plays. Although most of the works are solely violent by nature, it is perhaps the first known example of ero guro or the erotic grotesque in Japanese culture, an art sub-genre which depicts either erotic or extreme images of violence and mutilation.
The revenge of the Forty-seven Ronin (四十七士 Shi-jū-shichi-shi), also known as the Forty-seven Samurai, the Akō vendetta, or the Genroku Akō incident (元禄赤穂事件 Genroku akō jiken) took place in Japan at the start of the 18th century. One noted Japanese scholar described the tale as the country's 'national legend'. It recounts the most famous case involving the samurai code of honor, bushidō.<br/><br/> The story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (becoming ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) Asano Naganori was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka, whose title was Kōzuke no suke. The ronin avenged their master's honor after patiently waiting and planning for two years to kill Kira.<br/><br/> In turn, the ronin were themselves ordered to commit seppuku for committing the crime of murder. With much embellishment, this true story was popularized in Japanese culture as emblematic of the loyalty, sacrifice, persistence, and honor that all good people should preserve in their daily lives. The popularity of the almost mythical tale was only enhanced by rapid modernization during the Meiji era of Japanese history, when it is suggested many people in Japan longed for a return to their cultural roots.<br/><br/> Fictionalized accounts of these events are known as Chūshingura. The story was popularized in numerous plays including bunraku and kabuki. Because of the censorship laws of the shogunate in the Genroku era, which forbade portrayal of current events, the names of the ronin were changed.
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892) (Japanese: 月岡 芳年; also named Taiso Yoshitoshi 大蘇 芳年) was a Japanese artist and Ukiyo-e woodblock print master.<br/><br/> He is widely recognized as the last great master of Ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock printing. He is additionally regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of Edo period Japan, and the first years of modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration. Like many Japanese, Yoshitoshi was interested in new things from the rest of the world, but over time he became increasingly concerned with the loss of many aspects of traditional Japanese culture, among them traditional woodblock printing.<br/><br/> By the end of his career, Yoshitoshi was in an almost single-handed struggle against time and technology. As he worked on in the old manner, Japan was adopting Western mass reproduction methods like photography and lithography. Nonetheless, in a Japan that was turning away from its own past, he almost singlehandedly managed to push the traditional Japanese woodblock print to a new level, before it effectively died with him.
The Beatus of León is an 11th century illuminated manuscript of the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Beatus of Liébana. The manuscript was made for King Ferdinand 1 (c.1015-1065) and Queen Sancha of León. It contains 98 miniatures painted by Facundus. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament.
During the colonial era, just south of Yan’an Donglu (then called Edward VII Avenue) ran the Rue du Consulat – today’s Jinling Donglu – leading from the waterfront to the French Concession. Somewhere off this road was a small lane called Rue Chu Pao San, renamed Xikou Lu after 1949, but since, apparently, swept away in the tide of redevelopment.<br/><br/> In its heyday Rue Chu Pao San rejoiced in the European nickname ‘Blood Alley’ – a lane of teeming vice, brothels and low bars frequented by sailors on shore leave from the Huangpu docks. Ralph Shaw, a Briton who lived in Shanghai during the 1930s, records that Blood Alley fairly swarmed with ‘a legion of Chinese, Korean, Annamite, White Russian, Filipino and Formosan women’, in search of a similar legion of ‘kilted Seaforth Highlanders, tall U.S. Navy men, seamen from the Liverpool tramps, and French Grenadiers’, who ‘had ears only for the girls clinging to them in the half light of dance-floor alcoves’.<br/><br/> Blood Alley, as the name suggests, was a rough and violent place ‘entirely dedicated to wine, women, song and all-night lechery’.
Illustration by the Austrian artist Friedrich Schiff, who lived in Shanghai during the 1930s and 1940s. His images exemplify the 'anything goes' atmosphere and indulgence amidst poverty that characterised Old Shanghai and which would soon be brought to an abrupt end by Japanese invasion (1937) and Communist revolution (1949).
Abdul Hamid II (Ottoman Turkish: عبد الحميد ثانی, `Abdü’l-Ḥamīd-i sânî; Turkish: İkinci Abdülhamit; 22 September 1842 – 10 February 1918) was the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the last Sultan to exert effective autocratic control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a period of decline in the power and extent of the Empire, including widespread pogroms and government massacres against the minorities of the Empire (named the Hamidian massacres after him) as well as an assassination attempt, ruling from 31 August 1876 until he was deposed shortly after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, on 27 April 1909. He was succeeded by his brother Mehmed V.<br/><br/> Despite his conservatism and belief in absolute monarchy, Abdul Hamid was responsible for some modest modernization of the Ottoman Empire during his long reign, including reform of the bureaucracy, the ambitious Hijaz Railway project, the establishment of a system for population registration and control over the press, and the founding of the first modern law school in 1898.<br/><br/> Often known as the Red Sultan or Abdul the Damned due to the atrocities committed against the Empire's minorities under his rule and use of a secret police to silence dissent, Abdul Hamid became more reclusive toward the end of his reign, his worsening paranoia about perceived threats to his personal power and his life leading him to shun public appearances.
Henry Norman Bethune /ˈbɛθˌjuːn/ (March 4, 1890 – November 12, 1939; Chinese: 白求恩; pinyin: Bái Qiúēn) was a Canadian physician, medical innovator, and noted anti-fascist.<br/><br/> Bethune came to international prominence first for his service as a frontline surgeon supporting the democratically-elected Republican government during the Spanish Civil War. But it was his service with the Communist Eighth Route Army (Ba Lu Jun) during the Second Sino-Japanese War that would earn him enduring acclaim.<br/><br/> Dr Bethune effectively brought modern medicine to rural China and often treated sick villagers as much as wounded soldiers. His selfless commitment to the Chinese people made such an impression on Mao Zedong that generations of Chinese students were required to memorise the Chairman's eulogy to him.
A Vampire is a mythical being who subsists by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures. In folkloric tales, undead vampires often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited when they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 1800s.<br/><br/> The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of The Vampyre by John Polidori; the story was highly successful and arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula which is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend.<br/><br/> The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, and television shows. The vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre.
Yemen: Dragon's blood; powdered pigment or apothecary's grade; and roughly crushed incense. Image taken by Andy Dingley in 2010 and released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license.
USA: Dracaena cinnabari (Dragon's Blood Tree of Socotra / Suqutra Island), Koko Crater Botanical Garden, Hawaii. Image taken by Daderot and released into the public domain in 2009.
The Vegetarian Festival is a religious festival annually held on the island of Phuket in southern Thailand. It attracts crowds of spectators because of many of the unusual religious rituals that are performed. Many religious devotees will slash themselves with swords, pierce their cheeks with sharp objects and commit other painful acts. The Nine Emperor Gods Festival (Chinese: Jiǔhuángyé; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Káu-ông-iâ; Cantonese: Kow Wong Yeh) is a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is observed primarily in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Socotra, also spelt Soqotra, is a small archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean. The largest island, also called Socotra, is about 95% of the landmass of the archipelago. It lies some 240 km (150 mi) east of the Horn of Africa and 380 km (240 mi) south of the Arabian Peninsula. The island is very isolated and through the process of speciation, a third of its plant life is found nowhere else on the planet. It has been described as the most alien-looking place on Earth. Socotra is part of the Republic of Yemen. It had long been a part of the 'Adan Governorate, but in 2004 it became attached to the Hadhramaut Governorate, which is in much greater proximity to the island than Aden.
Bloodletting (or blood-letting) is the withdrawal of often little quantities of blood from a patient to cure or prevent illness and disease. Bloodletting was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily fluid were considered to be "humors" the proper balance of which maintained health. It was the most common medical practice performed by doctors from antiquity up to the late 19th century, a time span of almost 2,000 years.