Okay, normally I do 1970s art, but I just found a very strange story about some 1870s art and you know what, that's still the '70s, so here's the deal.
In this unassuming 2024 Reddit post, researcher Götz Kluge appears to have discovered for the first time that Henry Holiday's front cover illustration for “The Hunting of the Snark” – published in 1876 and comissioned by author Lewis Carroll himself – features a hidden upside-down map of the British Isles in the sky.
The possibility that the clouds and sky formed a map was brought up in this 2004 paper by John Tufail, although Tufail appears to have interpreted the clouds as land, rather than sea. The Reddit poster discovered the specific map on their own.
So, this might be the first time anyone's solved this 150-year-old Lewis Carroll puzzle?? And it's just sitting in a year-old Reddit post that only has three upvotes?
Well, okay, it looks like the author also has a Snark-themed website with a post about it. And after reading that blog a little more, I'd guess the hidden map Easter egg is the artist's idea, rather than Carroll's – looks like Henry Holiday often mirrored other artworks. Even the face of the guy above is copied from another old painting.
But still, I think this is all pretty cool and should get more attention!
Also you should subscribe to my art blog newsletter if you thought this was cool, it's a good time
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