There are few certainties in life, but here's a sure thing, courtesy of the Stanford Historical Archives.

"The first heaven, that of the Moon, is guarded by the lowest order of angels" (in Dante's Paradiso, as noted in The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories), and here's what it looks like.  A guard stands before Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt's moon model at the Field Columbian Museum, 1898.

INSTRUCTIONS: Click to convert the library into a Christmas card.

INSTRUCTIONS: Click to shift the scene by moments.

"It seems our pretty young royals are shrinking before our eyes" (A Current Affair, July 13, 2011).  Pictured, Brisbane decorates for Queen Elizabeth II in 1954.

From c. 1905.

As the words "Printed Backwards" are written forwards, we flipped the image.  Date unknown, scanned by the Miami University Libraries.

A double exposure from a 1933 yearbook, as scanned by Miami University Libraries.

From The Bee-Keeper's Review, 1907.

One is reminded of Woman Has Two Faces: Re-examining Eve and Lilith in Jewish Feminist Thought.  From a 1940 yearbook, as scanned by Miami University Libraries.

Here's a precursor to the "museum in a box" concept.  Chicago's Field Museum packed carefully back in 1927 (for an expedition in Abyssinia).

Current mood.  Courtesy of the Costică Acsinte Archive.

"The snow isn't snow at all.  It never was" (Bridget Asher, The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted, 2011).  Our proof is courtesy of the Costică Acsinte Archive.

This was entitled "2 Women" by the Boston Public Library, but our analysis finds that it's a single ghost that is bilocating.  Photo by Leslie Jones, date uncertain.

You've heard of seeing life "through the bottom of the glass," but you can also navigate that way.  From 1962, courtesy of the Tyne and Wear Archives.

"We would like to preach John Barley Corn's funeral sermon."  Date unknown.

"I need a soft shoulder to cry on" (Private Dick Hackney McTrite by Walker Jackson).  Photo courtesy of the San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives.

"Have ball, will orbit": The Vanguard TV-4 Missile, 1958, via the San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives.

"The Hobnob of The Merchant Tailors of Salisbury."  (A detail from a postcard, date uncertain.)