Königsberg: The New Market Place

Shown her is the New Market Place (Der Neue Markt). Or, at least it is in the pre-war photo. There you can also see the tower of the castle in the distance. After the war the castle was blown up and replaced by the "House of the Soviets" which you can see in the colour photo.

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Alphonse Mucha - Sarah Bernhardt

His big break came with the theatre posters he designed for Sara Bernhardt, one of the greatest actresses of this time.

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Smolensk

The wall surrounding Smolensk. It’s one of the oldest Russian cities. The city was destroyed several times since it was in the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler.

L'entente Cordiale

L'entente cordiale - Roger Fenton. English and French soldiers having a drink together in the lines before Sebastopol during the Crimean War. 1855. On the subject of this photograph, the critic Ernest Lacan wrote: “We have often heard about the entente cordiale […] it is the "Open Sesame!" of the future; but no-one can better put the idea of it into practice than soldiers from different nations fighting side by side in the Middle East for the same cause”.

Gaspare Vanvitelli - View of St Peter's and the Vatican

View of St Peter's and the Vatican Seen from Prati Di Castello by Gaspare Vanvitelli.


Gaspare Vanvitelli, also known as Casper van Wittel, was born in Amersfoort in 1653. Nowadays he is known to have been a famous painter of landscapes in Italy, though nearly anybody knows him in his homeland. He is one of the principal painters of topographical views known as vedute. His son Luigi would become a famous architect and also carries the italianized family name of Vanvitelli

Celebrity of the stage

Memphis-born Maude Fealy was a American actress who during the early twentieth century was one of the leading ladies of the American stage. Her gorgeous face and long dark hair made her a popular subject of the postcard and cabinet card collectors, thereby generating an impressive photographic legacy. She performed in historical dramas and spectacles, but her forte proved to be comedy.