oddeveld

[muh-kah-bruh, -kahb, -kah-ber]

adjective

gruesome and horrifying; ghastly; horrible.

of, pertaining to, dealing with, or representing death, especially its grimmer or uglier aspect.

“19th century coal miners would traditionally take canarys in cages down into the mine with them. The birds would act as an early warning system for carbon monoxide gas. When the canary stopped singing the miner would know that he had to escape the chamber he was in.”

Wax vanitas, Europe, 1701-1800

Mushroom Hat

This hat, shaped from the fibrous interior of Fomes fomentarius, was mailed to National Geographic headquarters by William J. O’Reardon in 1920. Its accompanying letter cataloged the cap’s dimensions and alerted the editors that this “very rare and extraordinary cap [is] made from a mushroom.”

ca. 1870-90’s, “In the Work Room”, [carte de visite portrait of taxidermist M.A. Maxwell]

“Maxwell is best known for her participation in the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, in which she displayed her taxidermy mounts in realistic settings of the Rocky Mountains. She was photographed many times in both carte and cabinet style. Here she displays her Evans repeating rifle in both images.”

Lover’s Eyes

Lover’s eyes are hand-painted portraits on ivory which were popular in England between the 1780s and 1830s. The history of this jewelry style is as juicy as the paintings are gorgeous. Since romantic love didn’t typically exist within the confines of a marriage at this point in history, affairs were pretty common. So how would you show your loyalty to your lover? By wearing a sentimental portrait of an unidentifiable part of their person, of course.