Search Results - World Digital Library

Narrow results:

Clear All

Place

Time

329 results

	View of Saint Thomas in America with the Citadel Fort Christian This colored drawing by an anonymous artist is a view of the Danish settlement on the island of Saint Thomas (present-day U.S. Virgin Islands) as it appeared in the 18th century. The settlement was established in 1672 by the Danish West India Company. Denmark claimed the nearby island of Saint John in 1683 and purchased the island of Saint Croix from France in 1733. The three islands became a Danish royal colony in 1754. The colony prospered as the import of slaves made possible a profitable plantation economy, and ... Contributed by Royal Library (The), Denmark
	Map of Holland: According to Astronomical Observations, Measurements of Schnellius & c. and the Superiorly Redesigned Special Maps of F. L. Güssefeld This map of the Netherlands coast is the work of Prussian cartographer Franz Ludwig Güssefeld (1744-1807). It was drawn based on the calculations of the renowned Dutch mathematician Willebrord Snellius (1580-1626), a professor of mathematics at the University of Leiden, who conceived the idea of measuring the earth using triangulation. Snellius’s discoveries helped to determine the radius of the earth as well as led to more accurate ways of measuring the distance between two cities. Contributed by National Library of Brazil
	Overview of Afghanistan and the Countries on the Northwest Border of India Carl Zimmermann was a first lieutenant in the Prussian Army who, in the early 1840s, developed a strong personal and professional interest in the conflict then being waged by the British Army in Afghanistan. In what became known as the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-40), Britain tried to extend its control from India northwest into Afghanistan, but suffered a series of disastrous defeats at the hands of the Afghan tribes and eventually was forced to withdraw. In 1842 Zimmermann published Der Kriegs-Schauplatz in Inner-Asien (The theater of war in inner Asia ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	Germany and Its Colonies: Travels through the Empire and Its Overseas Possessions, with the Collaboration of Arthur Achleitner, Johannes Biernatzki, et al. This 538-page work with its 1,367 illustrations reflects German national pride in the early 20th century, a period of rapid economic growth and scientific and cultural achievement in the German Empire. Most of the book deals with Germany proper, which at that time included Alsace-Lorraine, conquered from France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. A concluding chapter is devoted to Germany’s overseas empire, which had grown rapidly since the achievement of national unity in 1871. Germany’s colonies included Togo, Cameroon, German South-West Africa (present-day Namibia), German East ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	Samoa Travels Otto Finsch (1839–1917) was a German ornithologist and ethnographer who was involved in the establishment of Kaiser Wilhelms-Land, a German protectorate located in the northeastern part of present-day Papua New Guinea. Finsch worked as a curator at the Museum of Natural History and Ethnography in Bremen. He was awarded an honorary doctorate for his ornithological work by the University of Bonn in 1868 and became director of the Bremen museum in 1876. After an initial expedition to the Pacific in 1879–82, he returned to Germany and became a ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	Bahrain and Jemama Heinrich Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (1808–99) was a German Orientalist who specialized in Arab history and literature. He studied at the universities of Göttingen and Berlin, and taught at Göttingen from 1842 until 1890. This work is an analysis, based on Arab sources, of the geography of Bahrain and of the province of Yemama, located in present-day Saudi Arabia. Wüstenfeld noted in his introduction that Bahrain and Yemama were the least-known parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Only three Europeans—in 1819, 1862–63, and 1864—were known to have traveled through ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	Subscribe to the 8th War Loan In World War I, all sides used posters as tools to mobilize their populations for the war effort. This poster, published in Vienna in 1918, shows a little girl reaching through a number "8" to deposit a coin into a pile below, an advertisement for the eighth war loan being raised by Austria-Hungary, Germany’s chief ally in the war. The artist who designed the poster was Alfred Offner. Born in Czernowitz in 1879, Offner was a painter and graphic artist who was associated with the Vienna Secession, a group ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	Union Bank, 8th War Loan; Peace Through Victory In World War I, all sides used posters as tools to mobilize their populations for the war effort. This poster, published in Vienna in 1918, is an advertisement for the eighth war loan being raised by Austria-Hungary, Germany’s chief ally in the war. It shows a young woman offering a bowl of coins at an altar decorated with the Austrian coat of arms. The artist was Thomas Fasche, who created several other World War I posters, but about whom little is known. Contributed by Library of Congress
	National War Relief Exhibition In World War I, all sides used posters as tools to mobilize their populations for the war effort. This poster, published in Pozsony (present-day Bratislava, Slovakia) in 1917, shows a disabled veteran with a prosthetic arm using a scythe to harvest wheat. The text announces the National War Relief Exhibition in Pozsony. The poster was created by Pal Sujan, a popular artist whose portraits and other paintings were widely shown in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Sujan was born in Budapest in 1880, studied art, and worked as an art teacher in ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	German East Africa as a Settlement Region for Europeans, Taking into Consideration British East Africa and Nyassaland As imperial Germany began creating an overseas empire in the late 19th century, many influential Germans sought to emulate the example of Great Britain, which had built its large and powerful empire in part by promoting the settlement of immigrants from the British Isles to British-controlled territories in other parts of the world, including East Africa and South Africa. Germany declared a protectorate in East Africa in 1885 and established the colony of German East Africa (present-day Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi) in 1891. In 1908, Friedrich von Lindequist, undersecretary in ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	Contributions to the Geography of South-West Africa Fritz Jaeger and Leo Waibel were professors of geography in Germany who, in late 1913, were commissioned by the German colonial office to explore the northern part of German South-West Africa (present-day Namibia). They arrived in the colony in mid-1914 and soon were caught up in the events of World War I, which broke out in August of that year. Both men were drafted into the German Protection Force and fought in engagements with the South African forces entering German South-West Africa from the south. They were released from military ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	Atlas of Livonia, or of the Two Governments and Duchies Livonia and Estonia, and of the Province of Oesel This work containing 14 maps is the first complete atlas of Latvia and Estonia. The compiler of the atlas, Count Ludwig August Mellin (1754-1835), was a Baltic German who was born in Tuhala, Estonia, then a province of the Russian Empire. On a visit to Riga in 1782, Crown Prince Paul of Russia reportedly asked to see a map showing the location of the Livonian division of the Russian Army. When it turned out that no such map existed, Mellin, then a young officer in the army trained in technical ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	Mister Johann Anderson...Reports on Iceland, Greenland, and the Davis Strait for the Proper Use of the Sciences and Commerce Johann Anderson (1674-1743) was the son of a whaling ship owner from Hamburg, Germany. He became a lawyer, served in the Hamburg Senate, and was mayor of the city for many years. Anderson systematically gathered the available literature on Iceland, Greenland, and the adjacent seas, as well as gleaned information from sailors and merchants. This book, which he prepared mainly in the 1730s, was published in 1746, after his death. It includes descriptions of the land and peoples of Iceland and Greenland, and covers topics ranging from the herring fishery ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	Sketch Map of Africa with a Comparative Overview of the Journeys of Dr. Barth and Dr. Livingstone This map compares the voyages of the British explorer David Livingstone (1813-73), who traveled down the Zambezi River in 1851-56, and the German Heinrich Barth (1821-65) who, between 1850 and 1855, explored much of western Africa and the Sahara. Barth traveled to western Sudan, Chad, and northern Nigeria, where he researched the decline of the Fulani Empire and the history of the Hausa people, and recorded local languages and histories. In 1855, he spent eight months in Timbuktu, where he studied the Islamic culture of West Africa. Barth later published ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	Saviour Church, Copenhagen, Denmark This photochrome print from circa 1890-1900 is from the “Views of Architecture and Other Sites in Copenhagen, Denmark” section in the catalog of the Detroit Publishing Company. It shows Our Savior’s Church (Vor Frelsers Kirke), a large baroque church in the Christianshavn district of the city, that was built in 1682-96. The church was constructed in a Palladian-Netherlandic style for King Christian V by the court builder, Lambert van Haven (1630-95). Lauritz de Thurah (1706-59) designed the spire, which was completed in 1752, more than 50 years after the ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	Klampenborg Hermitage, with View of Park, Copenhagen, Denmark This photochrome from circa 1890-1900 is from the “Views of Architecture and Other Sites in Copenhagen, Denmark” section in the catalog of the Detroit Publishing Company. It shows the Eremitage Hunting Lodge in the Jaegersborg Deer Park near Klampenborg, Denmark, which was built in 1734-36 by King Christian VI for royal hunting dinners. The deer park was established in 1669 by King Frederik III as a private hunting reserve, and was opened to the public in 1756. The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	The Tivoli Park Entrance, Copenhagen, Denmark This photochrome from circa 1890-1900 is from the “Views of Architecture and Other Sites in Copenhagen, Denmark” section in the catalog of the Detroit Publishing Company. It shows the entrance to Tivoli Gardens, which opened in 1843, and is the second-oldest amusement park in the world (after Dyrehavsbakken, also in Denmark). The park was inspired by the romantic pleasure gardens of Europe, which were landscaped according to the naturalistic English tradition rather than the French style based on geometric lines. Tivoli's founder, Georg Carstensen (1812-57), had seen pleasure gardens ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	General View, Thal von Rieka, Montenegro This late-19th century photochrome print is from “Views of Montenegro” in the catalog of the Detroit Publishing Company. Baedeker’s Austria, Including Hungary, Transylvania, Dalmatia, and Bosnia (1900) recommended that European and American travelers of this period take a two-day excursion to Montenegro--from the port city of Catarro (present-day Kotor) to Cetinje, the then-capital of Montenegro. This photochrome print shows a scene on the road from Cetinje to the town of Rjeka, noted by Baedeker for its splendid mountain views. The Detroit Photographic Company was launched as a photographic publishing ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	Devin and the Danube River, Southwest Slovakia, near Austrian Border, Austro-Hungary This photochrome print is from “Views of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,” a selection of photographs of late 19th-century tourist sites in Eastern and Central Europe (formerly known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire) that was part of the catalog of the Detroit Publishing Company. It depicts Devín Castle, located on a bluff in southwestern Slovakia, at the confluence of the Morava and Danube rivers. The castle was an important military fortress of Great Moravia, a Slavic state that in the first half of the 8th century covered parts of present-day Moravia, western Slovakia ... Contributed by Library of Congress
	Entrance to Castle, Prague, Bohemia, Austro-Hungary Prague Castle is the largest medieval castle complex in Europe and the historic seat of kings, emperors, and presidents going back to the ninth century. This photochrome print shows the castle as it appeared in the last decade of the 19th century. In addition to the castle itself, the complex includes St. Vitus’ Cathedral, several palaces, a monastery, Golden Lane (once home to writer Franz Kafka), and St. George’s Basilica. Contributed by Library of Congress
	Museum, Prague, Bohemia, Austro-Hungary The National Museum of what is now the Czech Republic was founded in 1818 by Count Kašpar Maria Sternberg (1761-1838), an early scholar in the field of paleontology. The museum’s collections include millions of objects in the fields of natural history, history, art, and music. The main building, pictured here, was completed in 1891. It is located at the upper end of Wenceslas Square, one of the main squares in the city of Prague. The square is named for Saint Wenceslas, the patron saint of Bohemia. Contributed by Library of Congress

Narrow results:

Place

Time

Topic

Additional Subjects

Type of Item

Language

Institution