Poster:	skogkatt
Date:	2008-05-09 10:09
Subject:	Dame Freya Madeline Stark
Security:	Public

Dame Freya Madeline Stark (1893-1993) was an intrepid explorer and travel writer. She enjoyed mountain climbing, gallivanting all over the middle east, and wearing flamboyant clothes. She's the subject of today's Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Life of the Day, and I don't think I could possibly do a better job of capturing her awesomeness, so go check out the link!

Okay, done? If so, you'll know that she had a horribly disfiguring accident at the age of 12, and reconstructive surgery with skin grafts. Understandably, she was insecure about her looks for the rest of her amazing life, but was the insecurity warranted? You be the judge!




More pictures under the cut!

( Read more... )

Poster:	followthatcab
Date:	2008-05-08 16:18
Subject:	Newb Post, Alexis de Tocqueville, the Best Friend on Earth
Security:	Public

Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville
("Alexis de Tocqueville" to you know, his friends)

If you've ever written a paper on American Democracy, or America, or governmental efficacy, or more obscurely, the penal system and needed a quick quote to start you off, Alexis de Tocqueville is usually your man. He is the author of Democracy in America which claims, among other things, that Americans more than anyone else like to join ASSOCIATIONS, and this has lead through a long series of events to people, right now, joining bowling clubs to save democracy. De Tocqueville put the US on the map as a democracy that Worked, and he did it, I am certain, with one eyebrow mildly raised.



( He was also the most precious six year old on earth )

Poster:	popesclaw
Date:	2008-05-03 13:05
Subject:	The Unholy Trinity of Köln Dada
Security:	Public

From the fountain of knowledge:
"In Köln, Max Ernst, Johannes Theodor Baargeld and Arp launched a controversial Dada exhibition in 1920 which focused on nonsense and anti-bourgeois sentiments. Cologne's Early Spring Exhibition was set up in a pub, and required that participants walk past urinals while being read lewd poetry by a woman in a communion dress. The police closed the exhibition on grounds of obscenity, but it was re-opened when the charges were dropped."

Poster:	dragonclouds
Date:	2008-05-02 17:53
Subject:	1st Viscount Snowden
Security:	Public

This guy is an ancestor of mine so I thought I'd try him out. Seriously, all the family photos from 100 years ago or so just look like him, it's what we call the Hargreaves eyes.



Born July 18 1867 in a little cottage on the edge of the moors in a farming village in the West Riding of Yorkshire, died May 15 1937 presumably in a really big house. First Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, later Viscount Snowden of Ickornshaw (the hamlet in which he was born and where my grandma and grandad got married) - the title died with him as he had no children. Lord Privy Seal 1931-1932

( more information - it sort of reads like a socialist party manifesto )

Poster:	missmarlene
Date:	2008-04-29 22:30
Subject:	The germans are coming!
Security:	Public

Ok, so I've been reading a few things about WWII recently and well, it seems that most of the leading Nazis were quite funny looking bunch, and not in a very Aryan kind of way (Goebbels, Goering, Himmler and all of them).

So then I decided to look for the stereotypical movie-looking Germans involved in WWII:

-Erwin Rommel: (from Wikipedia) was perhaps the most famous German Field Marshal of World War II.

Rommel's military successes earned the respect not only of his troops and Adolf Hitler, but also that of his enemy Commonwealth troops in the North African Campaign. An enduring legacy of Rommel's character is that he is also considered to be a chivalrous and humane military officer in contrast with many other figures of Nazi Germany. Most captured Commonwealth soldiers during his Africa campaign report to have been largely treated humanely, and orders to kill captured Jewish soldiers and civilians in all theatres of his command were defiantly ignored. Following the defeat of Axis forces in North Africa, and whilst commanding the defence of Occupied France, his fortunes changed when he was suspected of involvement in the failed July 20 Plot of 1944 to kill Hitler and was forced to commit suicide.

 

Poster:	salveevery1
Date:	2008-04-20 15:02
Subject:
Security:	Public

John Hancock Founding Father

Poster:	turquoise_helen
Date:	2008-04-14 16:51
Subject:	Theodor Gottlieb Von Hippel
Security:	Public

He was a lawyer and mayor of Königsberg in the late 18th Century. Wikipedia describes him as a 'satirical and humourous writer'; he published his work anonymously as it attacked the Prussian King, civil servants, and argued vociferously in favour of human and civil rights for women (which at the time was considered crazy shit). Called 'the only feminist German man of his time' by Hannelore Schröder, he was definitely a cool guy. But was he hot?

Poster:	joshquixote
Date:	2008-04-08 16:09
Subject:	Cora Hatch
Security:	Public

"Cora Lodencia Veronica Scott (1840–1923) was one of the best-known mediums of the Spiritualist (religious movement) movement of the last half of the 19th century. Most of her work was done as a trance lecturer, though she also wrote some books whose composition was attributed to spirit guides rather than her own personality."
--thanks, Wikipedia!

So, basically, a spiritualist charlatan whose career was built on the fact that a beautiful young girl like her couldn't be a liar or that good of a public speaker. Wonderful! Poor thing was married four times though... her first husband took advantage of her by becoming her manager and then reportedly abusing her. He was also like twenty years older than her. Undeserving git.
I think she's extremely lovely, so I hope you think the same. This picture was taken from when she was in her teens, at the beginning of her career. More can be found about her at http://www.assumption.edu/whw/Hatch/target.html

Her contemporaries agree:
"Meanwhile a fair and slender girl, on whose flowing ringlets seventeen summers sit with light and easy grace, is visible in the background. She remains seated with upraised eyes fixed in an expression of intense but confident invocation. As the questions to be discussed are stated, an indescribable change steals over her face. It is a look of rapt entrancement, such as our fancy would depict for the Pythoness or Sybil of classic faith. It is a masterpiece of acting -- if acting it is."
"...evinced a breadth and clearness of mental culture really wonderful in a girl of seventeen. Her graceful and surpassing elegance of diction was another fruitful theme. A calm, equally sustained manner; a rich, clear voice, that filled the ear without one overstrained vote, and a modest unconsciousness of display, or an entire absorption in the subject matter, are the characteristics of Mrs. Cora Hatch as a public speaker."
"Popular fascination with Cora Hatch also arose because of her combination of childlike innocence and adult sexuality. There were the ringlets, the rapt expression, the off-the-shoulder dress (not at all the usual costume for female lecturers) so perfectly out of keeping with the cross hanging from her neck. There was the trance state."

Poster:	neverreal
Date:	2008-04-06 13:48
Subject:	George Gordon Lord Byron
Security:	Public
Mood:	geeky
Music:	48 Crash__Suzi Quatro

Hi. First time I've posted here. I checked all the way back to make sure he hadn't been posted before. His daughter (Ada Lovelace) has, though, three times!



( Bio + More pics )

Edit to say that I, myself, give him a 10.

Poster:	arsenal_a
Date:	2008-04-05 14:15
Subject:	Philip the Arab
Security:	Public
Mood:	calm
Music:	Peter Pan on TV

Ahhah, my friend just found this community after I posted in my own journal about something like this,

So here's my first post-

Philip the Arab (not actually an Arab, but from an area near Damascus, Arab is just a schoolboy nickname.) He was emperor of Rome from 244-249 AD where I believe he was murdered. He was one of a series of "soldier emperors" and some believe he had a hand in his predecessor's death.

But, shit. I would ride this man to Damascus and back if I had to. I remember he was in my Art History book and I felt SO LAME to be like "dizzamn, hot man from the 200s."



( A Couple More Under Here )

Poster:	joranj
Date:	2008-04-05 16:37
Subject:	Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre
Security:	Public

French revolutionary leader, incorruptible politician, and (arguably) homicidal lunatic.



An 8, for my money - he's got a slightly squished face but I reckon he looks good naked.

( Read more... )

Poster:	simulacrum
Date:	2008-03-26 13:08
Subject:	Vladimir Mayakovsky
Security:	Public

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky, was a noted Russian poet, playwright, satirist, socialist, graphic artist (Agitprop posters, mainly) and general rabble rouser.

( Continue )

Poster:	missmarlene
Date:	2008-03-20 04:07
Subject:	Princess of Èboli
Security:	Public

Ana de Mendoza (1540- 1592), Princess of Èboli, Spanish aristocrat, considered one of the most beautiful women in the Court of Philip the II in spite of having just one eye. How she lost her eye is not clear, but the most famous version is that it happened during a duelling accident when she was a child. Some historians believe she just had a lazy eye and wanted to hide it. She was supposed to be a proud woman, with an expensive taste and quite a temper.

She married, and had ten children by her husband, the rich nobleman Ruy Gómez de Silva, and led a quiet life while her husband was still alive. After his death she became a nun, and had such "differences" with the founder of the convet (a nun, now canonised) Teresa de Jesus, that all the nuns left the convent, abandoning Ana and her maids. She then published a book about Teresa de Jesus that was so full of lies that the Inquisition forbad its release for ten years.

She returned to public life, had great influence over the king and was rumored to be his lover (Philip the II was one of the most religious, pious king of a deeply catholic empire, so yeah, that's a pretty controversial subject). She is also said to have been the lover of the king's secretary, Antonio Pérez. They were later accused of high treason, and she lived the rest of her days locked in one of her palaces on the king's command.

Poster:	aliveinthewoods
Date:	2008-03-16 23:30
Subject:	awww yeah..electromagnetism baybee
Security:	Public

Young Michael Faraday...impoverished sexy chemist who stumbled upon some electromagnetism, and viola! We now have the car engine. 
Thank you, Michael. You were hawt.      

Poster:	winzig
Date:	2008-03-10 12:18
Subject:	Léonide Massine 1896 – 1979
Security:	Public

Doe-eyed Russian choreographer and Ballet dancer:

Poster:	istderjemand
Date:	2008-02-26 12:04
Subject:	Peter Kürten, the Vampire of Düsseldorf
Security:	Public

This is my first post. I have looked through the archives, but I did not see this guy, so hopefully he is new to everyone. Peter Kürten was one sick fellow. A serial killer, he killed as a means of gaining sexual gratification. Basically, blood got him off. Before he became a serial killer, he would do violent things to his lovers during sex, and even before that he had sex with goats and sheep before killing them. Nice, huh? 

Links: 
http://www.heretical.com/miscellx/kurten.html 
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial2/kurten/

Anyway, I first came upon this guy several weeks ago, when I had to do an assignment for my Criminology course; write a series of papers applying the different theories of criminal behavior to a particular serial killer. Although his acts are thoroughly disturbing, there is something oddly attractive about him, looks-wise. Decide for yourself:

Poster:	yellowsummers
Date:	2008-03-08 21:53
Subject:	Frida Kahlo
Security:	Public

One of the most controversial hot-or-nots I can think of- everyone seems to feel very strongly one way or the other.




( Mexican painter, 1907-1954 )

Poster:	montensem
Date:	2008-02-15 00:42
Subject:	Alban Berg (along with most appropriate comparisons to Oscar Wilde and even John Gray)
Security:	Public

Poster:	missmarlene
Date:	2008-02-12 23:31
Subject:	Hijikata Toshizo
Security:	Public

I saw this community and I just couldn't...not join. It's the weirdest most amazing thing ever!
So yeah, I'm new here, and this is my first post, so please be nice ^^. Plus, English is not my first language, so if I butcher grammar a bit...oh well, let's just say that I will butcher grammar.
I don't know if someone posted this guy before (I read a few pages, but obviously not everything), if so, then accept my humble apologies.
I first came across him and the Shinsengumi in Rurouni Kenshin and Peacemaker Kurogane.


Hijikata Toshizo  (1835 - 1869). (He even has a cool nickname!) "The Demon of the Shinsengumi".

Wikipedia entry here.

Shinsengumi here.

Poster:	lisabel
Date:	2008-02-11 20:03
Subject:	I swive as well as others do...
Security:	Public
Mood:	sleepy

Ladies and gents, pray allow me to present John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester - poet, rake, wit, and libertine extraordinaire.



( More behind the cut )