Tag: cultural history

  • 9. Nazi Broadcasts to Colonial Africa

    9. Nazi Broadcasts to Colonial Africa

    By Alex White (@alex_j_white) In August 1935, an officer of the Nigerian civil service sent an unusual pamphlet to the British Colonial Office. Printed in English and German, it provided listings and technical information for a new radio service aimed at listeners in Africa.[1] Like many ‘empire’ broadcasters of the 1930s, the service promised to…

  • 11. A Fifteenth-Century Illustrated Shahnama of Firdawsi

    11. A Fifteenth-Century Illustrated Shahnama of Firdawsi

    By Jacinta Chen (@jchen852) The Shahnama (Book of Kings) (977–1010) of Firdawsi (c. 940–1019/1025) was one of the most celebrated epics of the early modern Persianate world. Courts and individual patrons collected older manuscripts and commissioned copies of their own, giving artists plenty of creative license to experiment with the surrounding landscape, architecture, clothing, and…

  • 15. A Collection of Slovak Winter Sayings

    15. A Collection of Slovak Winter Sayings

    By Vanesa Djibrilova Each culture and each language present their own practical and moral guidance to the human experience. This wisdom is often summed up into catchy short phrases – sayings and proverbs. The authorship of Slovak proverbs is largely unknown. Most folk sayings likely predate the 19th century. However, perhaps many would be forgotten…

  • 21. “Holy Dolls”: The Christ Child

    21. “Holy Dolls”: The Christ Child

    by Ellie Johnson (@elliejohns0n1) In 2017, the Madonnas and Miracles exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge featured a wooden doll of the Christ child. This near life-size statuette was the first object visitors encountered in the gallery. 

  • 23: A Ship’s Light

    23: A Ship’s Light

    By Rebecca Goldsmith Earlier this summer, a freighter from Australia pulled into Southampton in the UK. Its load included a container filled with the contents of my grandparent’s home in the seaside village of Port Fairy (its traditional owners are the Eastern Maar people) in Southern Australia. This shipment brought with it an old brass…