Objects Of Intrigue

From "unabridged" to "slanguage," Madeline Kripke's library is a logophile's heaven (or hell).

The Digital Florentine Codex’s three languages and thousands of hand-painted illustrations provide a window into culture, war, and daily life.

“They are unpolished and unvarnished.”

The live, jewel-encrusted beetles called maquechs are tied to an ancient legend, but some worry for their future.

In 1934, American Communists translated a Stalinist book about revolution into a children’s game. Curiously, it didn't catch on.

The fragrant smoke of tian op perfumes royal Thai desserts.

A famous 1920s actress left the world a lasting piece of art: a remarkable miniature home.

The first of many of these puzzling objects was unearthed almost three centuries ago, and we still don't know what they were for.

Billy was a local celebrity in the early 1900s. And he might have been a murderer.

The future of a mysterious painting by the famed 17th-century "rebel artist" hangs in the balance.

A representation of the Bamum kingdom is a rare example of early-20th-century indigenous African cartography.

Discovered in 1900, the Saint-Bélec slab languished unrecognized in a castle basement for over a century.

In 17th-century Germany, a "schandmaske" was the prescribed punishment for social transgression.

Frances Nishimura preserved this sweet keepsake for generations.

The strange bronze artifact perplexed scholars for more than a century, including how it traveled so far from home.

No one knows what it says.

Peek inside the "employment records" of Great Britain’s sled dogs.