Derica

Today, Vincent van Gogh stands as one of the most celebrated artists of the nineteenth century, and his painting, The Starry Night, completed in 1889, is not only one of his most famous works, but also one of the most famous paintings in the world. Yet van Gogh and his beloved painting were not always as famous as they […] More

Vincent van Gogh, one of the most well-known post-impressionist artists, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland on March 30, 1853. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional, lacked self-confidence and struggled with his identity and with direction. […] More

Children chase after ice cream trucks in the summer, the heartbroken dig into a pint after a break-up, and this frozen favorite fills entire aisles at grocery stores. But even though we all take it for granted these days, the question remains: Who invented ice cream? This popular dessert wasn’t invented all at once. Rather, […] More

Tasked with treating victims of the Black Death, plague doctors wore all-leather suits and beak-like masks to avoid catching the fatal disease. The Black Death was the deadliest epidemic of bubonic plague in history, wiping out some 25 million Europeans alone in just a few years. Out of desperation, cities hired a new breed of […] More

When most people think of a drinking horn, they picture Vikings dressed in fur clothing and battle helmets guzzling mead after a day of raiding villages. While the Norsemen did use drinking horns, the history of the vessel is far more varied — and begins over 1,000 years prior to the Viking Age. An ancient […] More

The painting that inspired Shelley and Stendahl is thought to be of a young woman executed on 11 September 1599 for the murder of her father. Charles Dickens, visiting Rome early in 1845, found himself haunted by a painting. It was, he said, ‘almost impossible to be forgotten’. It was of a young woman with a white […] More

While Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the first practical incandescent bulb in 1879, the story of who invented the lightbulb is much more complicated. Indeed, Edison’s patent for the lightbulb was referred to as “an improvement” on existing models. Throughout the 19th century, inventors searched for a safer and more convenient method of producing […] More