Justice nods off and a demon prepares his noose.  From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1872.

INSTRUCTIONS: Click to set the clock back.

Do you detect a coded meaning to this ad from the turn of the century?  Though early for the use of "Mary Jane" as slang for marijuana, the "Maria Jane" reference here is paired with the unusual name "Blifkins" ("bliff" rhyming with "spliff," suggesting a cigarette of cannabis and tobacco), in the psychedelic context of "a change [coming] o'er his dreams."  When we include the hallucinatory portrait in which two figures emerge from the man's face, the ad seems to be suggesting that this particular tobacco combines happily with cannabis.

From Adventures of Two Youths in the Open Polar Sea by Thomas Wallace Knox, 1885.

"Charlie isn't fooling," and it's only funny if Charlie is fooling.  From Journal of Electricity, 1918.

Burying the hatchet lights the pipe.  From Two Little Savages by Ernest Thompson Seton, 1922.

Here's a pixelated scan of three crescent moons from Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina, 1905.

From Sylvester Sound, the Somnambulist by Henry Cockton and illustrated by Onwhyn, 1844.

From Hubert Ellio by Francis Davenant, 1866.

Here's a precursor to a Koopa attacking Mario and Luigi.  From the September 1938 issue of the Old Line magazine, as scanned by the University of Maryland Libraries.  Previously, we uncovered a vintage Koopa sitting by a Warp Pipe.

"Although this equipment might appear quaint in hindsight, it was a breakthrough for audiobook listening" (Listening to Learn: Audiobooks Supporting Literacy).

(Unrelated photo courtesy of the San Diego Air and Space Museum archives.)

"The skeleton limb was again protruded!"  From The Skeleton Horseman or the Shadow of Death, 1866.

"This space represents tears of grief, remorse, anguish, contrition, sorrow, regret, despair, rage, disappointment, blighted hopes, withered joys, &c., &c., &c., &c., &c."  From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1871.

Here's a precursor to a scene in the hilarious British series People Like Us, in which a proposed building is discovered to be "facing the wrong way."  In Punch, 1877, "The front's behind!"

INSTRUCTIONS: Click to deepen the sunset.

From 1886. 

From Night Thoughts by Edward Young, 1798.

From the Medical College of Virginia's X-Ray yearbook, 1921.  See How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.

From Dr. Evans' How to Keep Well, 1917.

Here's "the lord of the faithless," from The Men in the Moon or The Devil to Pay, illustrated by George Cruikshank, 1820.

From La Normandie Romanesque et Merveilleuse by Amélie Bosquet, 1845.

From How to Believe in Your Elf.

"Bed can be anywhere or nowhere" (John Gore, Mary Maxse, 1870-1944, 1946).  Our photo is from the Newport Naval Training Station, Rhode Island, 1917.

From Mikrokósmos: Paruus Mundus, 1618.

From Incidents and Adventures in Rebeldom by George W. Darby, 1899.

Here's a pixelated scan from Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina, 1920.

"Sinbad Lincoln and the old man of the sea," from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, May 3, 1862.

From Master Humphrey's Clock by Charles Dickens, 1843.

From The Culprit Fay by Joseph Rodman Drake, 1903.

From Loyola University's Dentos yearbook, 1922.  See How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.

From Slings and Arrows by Edwin Francis Edgett, 1922.

From The Vision, or Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise of Dante Alighieri, 1916.

5 stars.

Here's the sound of turtle heaven, from a sympathy card in Arlene Christianson's scrapbook, courtesy of the NDSU Archives.  We played the melody for you in a fancy MP3 and a barebones MIDI, for your convenience.

• MP3 Version
• MIDI Version

The brightest student of 1937, as scanned by Miami University Libraries.

From The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, 1880.

From High Living: Recipes from Southern Climes by Linie McLaren, 1904.

From Westminster Abbey by Mary Sturgeon and illustrated by Louis Weirter, 1921.

From Electrical News and Engineering magazine, 1891.

Here's the spirit of the picture theatre world, from Cinema News and Property Gazette, 1912.

What's the difference between Lamb's Tales From Shakespeare and lambs' tails from Shakespeare?

	lambs'   tails	Lamb's   Tales
"Is he a lamb?" —Henry VI, Part II	x	x
"I am a lamb." —Titus Andronicus	x	x
"He's a lamb indeed." —Coriolanus	x	x
"Esteem him as a lamb." —Macbeth	x	x
"Poor harmless lambs abide their enmity." —Henry VI, Part III	x	x
"Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment?" —Henry VI, Part II	x	x
"In peace was never gentle lamb more mild." —Richard II	x	x
"In the figure of a lamb." —Much Ado About Nothing	x	x
"We were as twinn'd lambs." —Winter's Tale	x	x
"Why, lamb! why, lady!" —Romeo and Juliet	x

"An amazingly rapid development — but gargoyle keeps pace": a headline from the magazine Flyg, Stockholm, July 1934.

From c. 1890.

"No conjuror," from Games of Skill and Conjuring, 1865.

From The Black Aunt by Clara Volkmann Fechner, 1848.

Here is revealed what the King of Hearts loves, from L'Oncle de l'Europe by John Grand-Carteret, 1906.