Blog – О сокровищах всемирной культуры

The Artist Luca Voronin

August 2, 2020

The National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg contains little-known engravings by a Russian artist Luсa Voronin. His engravings are also kept in Washington’s Library of Congress. They are interesting because they were created during the eight-year Northeast expedition of Lieutenants I.I. Billings and G.A. Sarychev (1785 -1793) the objective of which was to study the northern territories of Siberia, the waters of the Arctic Ocean and the northern part of the modern Pacific Ocean. Based on the results of…

“Architecture is a chronicle of the world” (Nikolai Gogol)

July 4, 2020

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Perhaps many have noted similarities in the impressive pieces of architecture preserved in different parts of the world, oftentimes quite distant from one another. Created in the same style, they amaze with their beauty, extraordinary size and remain a fascinating chapter in the history of architecture. Some of these buildings are adapted for modern institutions, but a man is lost amidst their massive walls, huge arches and giant-sized doors. One of many examples is the position of the upper door bolt…

What Can the Miami History Museum Tell Us?

July 2, 2020

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Interesting information may also be found at the Miami History Museum. Among its exhibits, there is an image of a chief of the Seminole tribe. The author of this portrait is an American naturalist, William Bartram, who embarked on a journey around Southern territories from 1773 to 1777. He shared his observations and research in his book Travels in North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida*. This book contains the aforementioned portrait exhibited in the Miami museum. Bartram’s…

About the Indigenous North American Peoples

June 29, 2020

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Having had the opportunity to compare the lifestyle, customs, and physical appearance of the peoples inhabiting North and South America, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville noted obvious similarities between them, describing them in his book as tall, stately and beautiful people whose facial features were no different from those of the Europeans.

Giants…Truth or Fiction?

June 26, 2020

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The engraving that we saw at the National Historical Museum of Buenos Aires impresses with the height of the native of Patagonia. The inscription under the engraving states: “The myth of the Patagonian giants is part of the European imagination and perception of the American continent.” However, according to the narratives of the travelers of the 18-19th centuries, the shortest Patagonian was about 2 meters tall.

First Nations as Seen by Travelers of the 17-19th Centuries

May 20, 2020

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“I never saw men better made, and whose limbs were more proportionate: in order to paint a Hercules or a Mars, one could no where find such beautiful models. Nothing distinguishes their features from those of the Europeans: and if they were cloathed; if they lived less in the open air, and were less exposed to the sun at noon, they would be as white as ourselves…” (Bougainville)