Friday links: Doodles, cakes, cookies, and cats
Photographer: Robert Howlett | Isambard Kingdom Brunel, builder of the Great Eastern | ca. 1857-1858 | George Eastman House, eastmanhouse.org
Some stories we’ve been reading this week:
- It’s official: art is more potent when seen in a museum. New studies suggest that the physical space of a museum exhibition changes how our minds respond to what we’re seeing. Not that it comes as a surprise to readers of this blog, ahem.
- Darwin’s children doodled on the back of the manuscript of On the Origin of Species. The drawings are adorable, we must admit.
- Archaeologist Eric Hollinger makes anthropologically themed cakes for his department’s annual holiday party at the National Museum of Natural History.
- From cakes we move to cookies when Hokusai meets Sesame Street. (And don’t miss this related tweet.)
- Sad cats in art history. Much funnier than it sounds.
- And lest you forget, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day! Don’t panic, just send your sweetheart a Valentine e-card from the New York Public Library. No sweetheart? Then you might enjoy our picture of St. Valentine about to get whacked.