Thursday, April 23, 2009

A Modern Marvel of Curiosities

If you haven't yet explored the World Digital Library, you should check out this amazing, beautiful site, which "makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world." In stunning visual format, the WDL displays cultural treasures that "include, but are not limited to, manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings." It was launched just last month by the Library of Congress and partner institutions.

Some items more or less randomly chosen from the library:

a map of the British Empire throughout the world, from the 1850s















the Japanese art of Ukiyo-e















Plants with parasites















You can search by topic, type of item, time, or place, and there is a wealth of information offered about each item.

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