Early microscopes like the one made by Antoni van Leewenhoek, on display in Revealing the Invisible: The History of Glass and the Microscope, were used to examine the quality of cloth. Today microscopes are used in three important aspects of … Read more →
When they appeared in the early 1600s, telescopes quickly revealed details of distant worlds, but microscopes provided access to tiny worlds much more slowly. The lenses for microscopes required more precision, and finer skills of the artisans who made them. … Read more →
This post comes from Laura Hashimoto and Bonnie Hodul, Rakow Library interns who are helping conserve the Whitefriars stained glass cartoon collection over the summer in conjunction with West Lake Conservators. Read more about this project and the collection in … Read more →
Death was everywhere in 1800s London. In the early decades one in two children died before the age of five. Cemeteries were bursting. Corpses were exhumed so more bodies could be stacked into graves and buried in the same spot. … Read more →