Mystery. Scandal. Fraud. Like any other cultural institution, the collections within the Rakow Research Library are not immune from tales of secrets long-buried – unsurprising, really, for a library that includes nearly 200 archival collections. For years, I’d heard tell … Read more →
Imagine your eyes were made of peapods, your nose a pear. In the 16th century, Italian painter and portraitist Giuseppe Arcimboldo represented the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II with just such features. Sometimes known as the “grandfather” of Surrealism (a 20th … Read more →
Imagine a mosaic 27 feet high and 20 feet wide. More than 90 years ago, an exterior mosaic of this size was proposed for the main entrance of Broadway Temple in northern Manhattan. The installation, in the likeness of this … Read more →
The wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten took place on November 20, 1947, at Westminster Abbey. The princess, who would one day become Queen Elizabeth II, received over 2,500 wedding presents from all over the world. One such gift … Read more →