Blog

Johannes Gutenberg looks at a freshly printed sheet. The printer, a man in an apron, and a young man are watching him. On the right a workbench with tools, possibly used for making the type.
From manuscript production to the printing press

How the page layout evolved during the early years of the printed book

Sidney Bechet playing the clarinet
Black Royalty in Europe: How Europe became a centre for jazz as countercultural avant-gard…

Black American musicians who mainstreamed jazz throughout Europe after the First and Second World War

a painting of a woman wearing a white bonnet sitting next to a window, a large lace pin cushion in front of her.
Lace, a labour of love

Follow the evolution of lace craft, from myth to machine

black and white portrait of a young Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu

India's renowned poet and freedom fighter

Radio on TV

Selected broadcast reports from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

Landscapes from the Soul

Explore fusions of Chinese pictorial traditions and Western abstraction

colour image of two men wrestling in white costumes watched by a crowd
Lucha Canaria: wrestling from the Canary Islands

Traditional sport since prehistoric times

a porcelain figure of a man sitting down, wearing a long blue jacket with gold trim and gold tassels, his hair slicked back and ending in Victorian-style ruffles
Explorers of China, part 2

When Western traders and colonists set sail for China in the 17th Century, they found an empire focused solely on protectionism.

colour painting of three girls, one is sketching, the other two are watching
European Year Of Youth Colouring Book

Celebrate European Year Of Youth by colouring

cropped black and white photograph of Dorando Pietri running
How Dorando Pietri lost the 1908 Olympic marathon gold medal

Italian long distance runner who turned failure into success

black and white photograph of Suzy Solidor who sits in a car with a large dog sitting next to her
Suzy Solidor & La Vie Parisienne

Lesbian entrepreneur, actress, singer and 'the most painted woman in the world'

Aristotle among his students. Miniature on the first leaf of Oresme’s translation of Aristotle’s Ethics, in a late 15th-century manuscript
Reading and debating at the Arts Faculties

University life in the middle ages

Domenico Modugno in a shot from the early 1960s. Winner of three editions of the Sanremo Festival, including the one of 1958 with the famous song “Nel blu dipinto di blu”. Photo Archivio Luce - Cinecittà. All rights reserved.
February begins, Italy sings – 72 years of the Sanremo Music Festival

How Sanremo changed the way of doing music, television and entertainment

Explorers of China

We follow the tracks of great China explorers and revisit their accounts of life behind the Great Wall.

close-up colour photograph of a silver lion-shaped figure on top of a silver trophy
The Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race Trophies

Contemporary silver masterpieces from the 'Battle of the Blues'

colour photograph of Fatih Akin who is holding a microphone and holds up one hand
Exploring the films of director Fatih Akin

Belonging and identity in contemporary multicultural Germany

white map of Europe with purple background, and words Esch-sur-Alzette, Kaunas and Novi Sad
European Capital of Culture 2022

Esch-sur-Alzette, Kaunas and Novi Sad in the spotlight

black and white photograph of two people standing in front of a large glacier
Discovering Dreesen: a pioneering German photographer

Photographer, globetrotter, influencer

Gouache depicting a garden with large pond, rocks, pavilions and flower pots, late Qing dynasty
The Chinese Garden

Traditional Chinese garden design connects the realm of the physical with that of the ideal, to express the harmony that should exist between humans and nature.

Lilly Steinschneider wearing a pilot costume, she is holding her eye protecting goggles and her pilot cap in her right hand
Lilly Steinschneider, Hungary's first female pilot

Conquering the skies in 1912