What the Heck
Greeting Cards, History Rebecca Tillett Greeting Cards, History Rebecca Tillett

What the Heck

The What the Heck card series is an homage to Johann Georg Heck, the German artist behind the lithographs used from his 1849 book, Bilder-Atlas zum Conversations-Lexicon: Ikonographische Encyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste.

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Nightmare
Restorations, History Rebecca Tillett Restorations, History Rebecca Tillett

Nightmare

Nightmare by Nicolai Abildgaard draws inspiration from Johann Henry Fuseli’s 1781 painting Nachtmahr. First exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1782, Fuseli’s work was rapidly reproduced and widely distributed across Europe in both authorized and unauthorized versions.

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Woody Guthrie, Cherokee Bill and Bass Reeves
Grave Hunting, History, Personal Rebecca Tillett Grave Hunting, History, Personal Rebecca Tillett

Woody Guthrie, Cherokee Bill and Bass Reeves

First stop: Highland Cemetery in Okemah, OK to see the cenotaph for Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) (Fun fact: his full name was Woodrow Wilson Guthrie!) as well as the graves of his loved ones. We also went looking for his childhood home before realizing it was torn down in the ‘70s due to the demands of some very vocal locals who were whining that it had become a hangout for teenage hoodlums (when really it was likely they just didn’t believe that “commie” deserved any kind of legacy).

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Pretty Boy Floyd
Grave Hunting, Personal, History Rebecca Tillett Grave Hunting, Personal, History Rebecca Tillett

Pretty Boy Floyd

“Charles Arthur Floyd (February 3, 1904 – October 22, 1934), nicknamed Pretty Boy Floyd, was an American bank robber. He operated in the West and Central states, and his criminal exploits gained widespread press coverage in the 1930s. He was seen positively by the public because it was believed that during robberies he burned mortgage documents, freeing many people from their debts. He was pursued and killed by a group of Bureau of Investigation (BOI, later renamed to FBI) agents led by Melvin Purvis.”

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Memento Mori
Personal, History Rebecca Tillett Personal, History Rebecca Tillett

Memento Mori

This is one of our mini 4x6 prints. The original painting is titled Pearl of Grief and was created by Mary Jane Peale in 1855. Mary Jane hailed from a prominent family of painters and in fact, another of our pieces, Swarm Wishes, was created using a portrait of her father, Rubens Peale, painted by her uncle, Rembrandt Peale.

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The morbs
Postcard, History Rebecca Tillett Postcard, History Rebecca Tillett

The morbs

“The morbs” is slang of the Victorian Era that indicates that someone is feeling temporarily depressed, melancholy or sad. “The British lexicographer Susie Dent described ‘having the morbs’ as ‘to sit under a cloud of despondency.’

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Hangry
Postcard, History Rebecca Tillett Postcard, History Rebecca Tillett

Hangry

This was painted around 1820 near Madrid by Francisco Goya and called Saturn Devouring His Son. It was actually painted on one of the walls of his home at the time and later transferred to canvas after his death.

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Childbirth and  Puerperal Fever
Jewelry, History Rebecca Tillett Jewelry, History Rebecca Tillett

Childbirth and Puerperal Fever

Hundreds of years ago, when men calling themselves doctors decided to rob childbirth from the midwives and bring it into hospitals, the maternal mortality rate skyrocketed due to something called puerperal (or childbed) fever, a bacterial infection of the female reproductive tract following childbirth.

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