Curiosity Cabinet

The British National Archives are online and available for your perusal. The National Archives are archives of British documents up until about 1971 (not all areas are updated to this year), from the Archives you can look up just about anything: the census; court reports; soldiers in any British battle; who got married, was born, or died; the history of all schools, the list goes on. Click here for a link to the National Archives Government homepage and take a walk down Secret Files Lane. Searching can be done by subject, topic, or time period so take some time to peruse.

Click here to head to records of the Second World War.

Here is a link to a database you can search to find any British soldier in the First World War, the medals they received, and who they’re related to.

Like places and spaces? Click here to search all of the places in the UK and the history.

What the heck are you going to do with endless sources of information? Remember them for when you’re curious about something British and want to know the inside scoop on it. If you’re curious about prisons you can totally check out all of them online.

Spooky. By clicking the picture you can also find links to crminal trials and records in Britain up to 1971. Sweet deal if you like telling ghost stories or te history of British criminals.

Who is this fellow who doesn’t use capitals in poetry let alone his own name? Why e.e. cummings, of course! Edward Estlin Cummings (note the fantastic middle name) was an American poet and writer who was quite the master of poetry. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1894, he went on to do his Bachelors of Arts (1915) and his Masters of Arts (1916) at Harvard. Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound were among his professors (I’ll post on them later) so it is not all too surprising he is the genius he is. In 1917 e.e. published a selection of poems and left for France to help in the First World War as an ambulance driver (Hemingway was an ambulance driver too, just so you know). His novelThe Enormous Roomis based on his experience there when he and a friend were interned in a prison camp by French authorities on suspicion of espionage due to his anti-war comments. e.e. returned to the States and split his time between rural Connecticut and Greenwich Village, peppered with visits to Paris. In 1920 seven of e.e. cummings’ poems were published by The Dial.

e.e. cummings was quite the experimental writer and poet for his day, toying with punctuation, capitalization, spelling, syntax, and form. As is career meandered on he was criticized for not pushing the boundaries he used to and complacently creating poetry without evolution. Regardless, e.e. cummings was and is one of the top poets, and received an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship at Harvard among others. He died on September 3, 1962 in Boston, Massachusetts.

[anyone lived in a pretty how town]

How neat is it when you meet someone new and you find out through one way or another that you share a birthday? This has not actually ever happened to me but I imagine it would be pretty neat. Sure, it’s a birthday but it means you are the exact same age as someone else you are walking with right then. I find it interesting anyway.

So how common isyour birthday? This website will tell you. I’ve posted a picture of the graph below but to see your birthday rank you will need to go to the website and scroll over your birthday. You will note how there are A LOT of September babies and that the conception date for September the 16th babies is Christmas Eve. Neat.

Oh em gee CURIOSITY. I found this website called 1983 while looking for samples of Mandy Barker’s photographs to post (post on May 5, 2012) and love it. I took a very brief shuffle through and adore it. It focuses on illustration, design, and photography so youcan just imagine how neat it is.

Kaleidoscope snapshot by Keleidolism (seriously, check these people out! It’s an online kaleidoscope!) (Seriously, go do it. It’s an online kaleidoscope.)

The best part is, all the pictures posted on 1983 are linked to their respective websites! Because I am a nice person I have also linked the pictures with their respective websites.

She’s British, she’s clever, and she takes great photographs. She has two books out one of which is Soup(the book the pictures below are from). She’s clever enough not to allow right-clicking on her website so these are the only pictures I’ve managed to be able to post. Check out her website and maybe buy her book(s)!