The Tarot Card Deck Created by Salvador Dalí

‌

The Tarot has long been a tool of charlatans. But it has also long been embraced by brilliant, unconventional thinkers, many of whom themselves have a touch of the charlatan about them (and who would just as likely admit it with a smile). William Butler Yeats was a fan, as is visionary Chilean filmmaker,…

How to Bake Ancient Roman Bread from 79 AD: A Video Introduction

‌

Ecce panis—try your hand at the kind of loaf that Mel Brooks’ 2000-year-old man might have sunk his teeth into. Literally.

In 1930 a loaf of bread dating to AD 79 (the year Vesuvius claimed two prosperous Roman towns) was excavated from the site of a bakery in Herculaneum.
…

Hear a Recently-Discovered 12,000-Year-Old Flute That Musically Mimics the Sound of Raptor Calls

‌

Here on Open Culture, we’ve featured ancient wind instruments going back 9,000, 18,000, even 43,000 years. Just this month, archaeological research has just added a new item to this venerable lineup: a set of 12,000-year-old flutes made from the bones of birds. “The instruments are among the oldest in the world and,…

Behold a 19th-Century Atlas of the United States, Designed for Blind Students (1837)

‌

In 1835, the New England Institution for Education of the Blind (now known as Perkins School for the Blind) acquired a printing press.

Under the leadership of its first director, Samuel Gridley Howe, the press was customized in order to print in raised text that allowed blind and visually impaired people…

When Henri Matisse Was 83 Years Old, He Couldn’t Go to His Favorite Swimming Pool, So He Created a Swimming Pool as a Work of Art

‌

I will die from the heat, take me home. I will make my own Pool. – Henri Matisse

Representing water is an elusive proposition for many artists, especially when it’s not posing placidly on a windless, moonlit evening.

In the summer of 1952, Henri Matisse headed to a favorite Cannes swimming pool…