When I first stumbled across the Vajen-Bader Smoke Protector, I initially thought it was a prop from Dr. Who or Star Wars. This bizarre looking hood was created in the 1890s by hardware salesman, Willis Vajen and piano maker, William Bader to prevent the inhalation of smoke and toxic fumes.
Today on Museum Bites we’re celebrating the humble mastodon (Mammut). Often overshadowed by the bigger, flashier wooly mammoth, the mastodon has the reputation of being the Jan Brady of the elephant family. But did you know a glass of rum, a prehistoric arrow, and a former U.S. president all played a role in the discovery... Continue Reading →
The wild and vivid paintings sent shockwaves through the art world. These Anonymous Society upstarts were deemed a sloppy and crude bunch.
The first automobiles sputtered onto the island and sent shockwaves through the tiny community. Like an Uber vs taxi cab feud, the carriage drivers were in an uproar.
Hot steamy water flowed into six private bathing chambers, each tricked out with its own Cialis-style tub, but despite these painstaking efforts, a soldier’s hygiene was a dodgy business.
We’ve danced with California raisins, gone coo coo for Cocoa Puffs, learned Trix are for kids, Lucky Charms are magically delicious, and Frosted Flakes are grrrrrrreat! But the absolute best is naturalist, Euell Gibbons teaching us that certain parts of a pine tree are edible.
After several minutes in the Crystal Dome, I developed a serious case of kaleidoscope eyes. I and my fellow tourists scrambled onward searching for tangerine trees and marmalade skies only to stumble upon the offbeat, Mechanical Theatre.
Mix copper with zinc and we get brass. Blend it with tin and voilà, we have bronze. Blast it with oxygen and copper morphs into a cool, sea-green.
“…darkness came…like the black of closed and unlighted rooms. You could hear women lamenting, children crying, men shouting…” ~ Pliny the Younger (61-113 AD) an eyewitness of the destruction of Pompeii.
In his teens, he dropped out of school and bounced around struggling to fit in.
