Category Archives: collections and archives

The world’s greatest unsung museums / webcam fun (not that kind): do I look weird? adds a time delay so you can see what you look like in the immediate past; How normal am I?

‘Harrods for Everything is the apt title of a huge 1,525-page catalogue from about 1912′, via Hot off the Press, via MeFi. Eat your heart out Argos. If you like this kind of thing, the Sears Archive is also instructive. … Continue reading →

Authors Christopher Reeves and Aaron Walker compile the world’s worst playlist on the occasion of the publication of their book The World’s Worst: A Guide to the Portsmouth Sinfonia. More about this legendary orchestra / manipulated scenes and landscapes by … Continue reading →

Could Teleporting Ever Work? (Spoiler: No) / where’s the beef? RIP Carl Reiner / QasarBeach emulates the Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument) (via Synthtopia) / New York scene in miniature by Cityfolk Studio. More small things at D.Thomas Fine Miniatures … Continue reading →

“It is worth remembering a website does not have to be a product; it can also be art. The web is also a creative and cultural space that need not confine itself to the conventions defined by commercial product design … Continue reading →

Daniel Gray’s excellent Meanwhile newsletter now has an archive. File alongside Kottke’s twitter and Coudal as a regular source of inspiration. Related, the current iteration of Kottke is 15 today / comparing Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite and Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle … Continue reading →

Life in Miniature is a short film by Ellen Evans about the work of Kath Holden and her mother Margaret Shaw, otherwise known as Delph Miniatures. This, ahem, small business is dedicated to making contemporary, everyday dolls house furniture and … Continue reading →

From this question, Umberto Eco on photocopies: ‘Photocopies are indispensable instruments. They allow you to keep with you a text you have already read in the library, and to take home a text you have not read yet. But a … Continue reading →

Some things to browse, starting with the incredibly accurate cutlery drawer simulator (via b3ta) / Tiny Commotions, a weblog / Fan Ho’s Street Photography of 50s & 60s Hong Kong (at kottke) / Building on the Built, an architecture website … Continue reading →

A Brief History of the Index at I love Typography (via Coudal). This post sent us back to The Indexer magazine, the publication of the Society of Indexers, previously mentioned in the archives. It sent us to the excellent blog … Continue reading →

The British Library is in the process of saving old sound recordings, often on obscure formats. The Museum of Obsolete Media has a timeline of audio formats (the data format timeline is just as intriguing. Related, the Sinclair ZX Microdrive … Continue reading →

‘A hidden vault under the old Astoria nightclub has been unearthed by Crossrail builders and it has revealed an unexpected history of one of Britain’s first condiment suppliers‘ / sort of related, archive images of some amazing early C20 salt … Continue reading →

Modernist Camden, a new map from Things you can buy / Engineering the World, the life and work of Ove Arup on display at the

11 Months, 3000 pictures and a lot of coffee. Restoring an engine / How GM Beat Tesla to the First True Mass-Market Electric Car / related: end of the road as car use falls? / Teenage Crushes, selling the supercars … Continue reading →

Unfinished Father, a 2015 project by Erik Kessels, a very personal project from the publisher of the In Almost Every Picture series of found albums. More at It’s Nice That / Dubdog, always satisfying to stumble across a well-cultivated flickr … Continue reading →