I Love Edgar Allan Poe, I’m such a huge fan of his works. I personally have never read anything more beautiful than his eloquent writing, it just speaks to my soul. They just don’t make em like this anymore!

James Clerk Maxwell- Scottish theoretical physicist

His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This unites all previously unrelated observations, experiments, and equations of electricity, magnetism, and optics into a consistent theory. Maxwell’s equations demonstrate that electricity, magnetism and light are all manifestations of the same phenomenon, namely the electromagnetic field. Subsequently, all other classical laws or equations of these disciplines became simplified cases of Maxwell’s equations. Maxwell’s achievements concerning electromagnetism have been called the “second great unification in physics”, after the first one realised by Isaac Newton.

Maxwell demonstrated that electric and magnetic fields travel through space in the form of waves and at the constant speed of light. In 1865, Maxwell published A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field. It was with this that he first proposed that light was in fact undulations in the same medium that is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena. His work in producing a unified model of electromagnetism is one of the greatest advances in physics.

Maxwell also helped develop the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, which is a statistical means of describing aspects of the kinetic theory of gases. These two discoveries helped usher in the era of modern physics, laying the foundation for such fields as special relativity and quantum mechanics.

Maxwell is also known for presenting the first durable colour photograph in 1861 and for his foundational work on the rigidity of rod-and-joint frameworks (trusses) like those in many bridges.

Many physicists consider Maxwell to be the 19th-century scientist having the greatest influence on 20th-century physics. His contributions to the science are considered by many to be of the same magnitude as those of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. In the millennium poll—a survey of the 100 most prominent physicists—Maxwell was voted the third greatest physicist of all time, behind only Newton and Einstein. On the centennial of Maxwell’s birthday, Einstein himself described Maxwell’s work as the “most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton.” Einstein kept a photograph of Maxwell on his study wall, alongside pictures of Michael Faraday and Newton.

Post-Impressionist, Paul Gauguin. This is his self-portrait and he’s totally hot.

My history crush is Pierre Auguste Renoir - don’t know if he’s been up here before but he’s always been a favorite painter of mine, my Art History professor in high school always told us to remember him as the “Happy Impressionist” due to how he used little to no black paint in his works.

I ran into this wonderful portrait of a young Renoir modeling the latest Paris fashions for men by Frédéric Bazille, another impressionist painter and a friend of Renoir, at the Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Anyone who is a fan of fashion or impressionism should check it out - here’s a preview: 

http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2013/impressionism-fashion-modernity

Dante Gabriel Rosetti was a part of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Aldous Huxley! 
Absolute literary genius/babe.  

The owner of this exquisite moustache is Art Nouveau architect, furniture designer & painter Charles Rennie Mackintosh. When he and his artist wife Margaret MacDonald had an exhibition of the ‘Glasgow Style’ in Vienna, they influenced artists such as Klimt, who then created the Vienna Secession movement.

Plus, the man had style. Check out the careless knot on that scarf. Rawr!

Ricard O’Sullivan Burke was a 19th c Fenian (Irish Republican) leader. As a young man, he joined the Cork Militia, deserted, joined the Chilean Cavalry, spent a year in Paris as a linguist and writer, joined the Union Army, fought in the NY Light Infantry during Bull Run, and trained as an Army engineer. After the Civil War, he became a leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. At some point, he became an arms buyer for the IRB while posing as a representative of the Chilean government. His rescue and escape from the Clerkenwell prison in 1867 led to a political crisis. And he’s so dashing. How has this guy not become a comic book hero?

zolotoivek:

Portrait of two Armenian fighters during the Hamidian Massacres, 1895.