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Victorian Christmas Cards
Printed Christmas cards became popular in the Victorian period (1837-1901) thanks to a combination of cheaper printing techniques and even cheaper post, with the arrival of the Penny Black postage stamp. Coming in all shapes, sizes, and materials...
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Demotic Ostracon Recording Payment of Necropolis Tax
This is a receipt for the "Tax of the Overseer of the Necropolis". Ancient Egyptian cemeteries possessed their own administration, the cost of which were defrayed by the payment of specific taxes. Most of the evidence for these were preserved...
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Two 1899 Christmas Cards
Two Victorian printed Christmas cards from 1899. (British Museum, London)
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1898 Christmas Cards
Two Victorian printed Christmas cards from 1898. (British Museum, London)
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Tax Payment Relief (replica)
A copy of a bas-relief in Neumagen near Trier (Germany) showing taxes being collected. Depicted on the funerary relief are three Roman tax officials and four taxpayers, a basket on a table in which the tax money had to be paid and wax tablets...
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Sports, Games & Entertainment in the Elizabethan Era
Leisure activities in the Elizabethan era (1558-1603 CE) became more varied than in any previous period of English history and more professional with what might be called the first genuine entertainment industry providing the public with...
Definition
Feudalism
Feudalism was the system in 10th-13th century European medieval societies where a social hierarchy was established based on local administrative control and the distribution of land into units (fiefs). A landowner (lord) gave a fief, along...
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Christmas Through the Ages
The Christmas holiday has gathered around it customs and traditions for over two millennia, some of which even pre-date the Christian festival itself. From gift-giving to the sumptuous spread of a Christmas dinner table, this article traces...
Definition
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was a Russian composer most famous for his symphonies, the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker, and the operas Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades. A composer of innovative and...
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Tobacco & Colonial American Economy
The most important cash crop in Colonial America was tobacco, first cultivated by the English at their Jamestown Colony of Virginia in 1610 CE by the merchant John Rolfe (l. 1585-1622 CE). Tobacco grew in the wild prior to this time and was...