blackhistoryalbum:

Black Style | 1880s

Studio portrait of an African American female equestrian rider from the late 1880s.

via Black History Album, The Way We Were
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centuriespast:

Adele Quinney. Stockbridge Tribe: A girl whose every physical measurement is artistically correct

Frances Benjamin Johnston (American, 1864–1952)

1899-1900. Platinum print

MoMA

Mozart is such a turn on. His personality, his music, his eyes make me horny. I wish could travel back in time, meet Mozart and have sex with him.

About time we got some Arabs up in here!

This hottie is Faisal I of Iraq (1885-1933). He was the King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria then the King of Iraq. He was a huge promoter of pan-Arabism and tried to include as many ethnic/religious groups as he could so as to diversify his administration.

When the Zionist sentiment arose, he was hoping for a partnership between Arabs and Jews all the while wishing Jews a safe return home. Unfortunately, his hopes were trampled on with the violence that ensued in the Palestinian territory.

Fun fact: he was a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.

Queen Tamar of Georgia. Ruled the Kingdom of Georgia from 1184-1213.

Even though her father left her the throne, a lot of her counselors were wary about having a woman rule, so they picked out a husband for her - Yuri, Prince of the Rus’ (Russia). She complied, but when he started getting drunk and abusing her, she called off the marriage and kicked him out of Georgia. He came back with an army to try and overthrow her, but she and her armies beat them to a pulp and sent them packing. 

A lot of neighboring countries tried to invade, actually, because they thought that a woman leader was a sign of weakness. 

She showed them otherwise. 

She expanded the Kingdom of Georgia to its largest size, created a Golden Era of peace in which the greatest Georgian poetry and art was created, and eventually married her friend and equal, David Soslan, prince of Alan. 

She was incredible, guys. 

Federico Garcia Lorca was a Spanish poet and playwright. He was born in June of 1898. His works were highly controversial for the time. He was murdered in August of 1936 by Francisco Franco’s troops. No one knows where his body is and historians are still trying to find it.

JEAN-FRANÇOIS CHAMPOLLION - 1790-1832 - French classical scholar & archaeologist - responsible for deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics - founding father of Egyptology - intense, piercing eyes - sumptuously curly hair - omg

Jean-François Champollion was born in south-western France in 1790. By the age of 19 he had dedicated himself to the study of various oriental languages - including Persian, Ethiopic, Sanskrit, Zend, Pahlevi and Arabic - Champollion also began work on a dictionary and grammar of the Coptic language. Examining texts brought from Egypt, he began to identify a relationship between hieroglyphic and non-hieroglyphic scripts. His thesis, completed in 1824 (‘hieroglyphic, figurative, ideographic and alphabetic’ systems of ancient Egypt) caused a sensation, providing the long-searched-for solution to the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics. In 1826, Champollion became director of the soon-to-be-opened Egyptian Museum at the Louvre, and died suddenly on 4 March 1832.

Carlos II of Spain is perhaps best known in the UK (I can’t speak for other parts of the world) for being the man whose death triggered the War of the Spanish Succession and all that school stuff like Blenheim, Ramillies, Malplaquet etc etc etc. 

Thanks to his family’s enthusiasm for incestuous marriages Carlos was saddled with a grim catalogue of mental and physical health problems, most conspicuously Habsburg lip so pronounced that he couldn’t even chew his food.  Married first to Marie Louise of Orleans with whom he fell very much in love, and later to the unpleasant sounding Maria Anna of Neuberg, he was unable to father children.  Since he regarded the production of an heir as a sacred duty, this caused him much grief and anxiety.  Believing, as many people did, that his problems were caused by witchcraft, he underwent exorcism but to no avail.  Increasingly debilitated, he died in 1700 having willed his empire to the candidate he believed was best equipped to keep it intact:  Philip, Duke of Anjou, a great-nephew who was also a grandson of Louis XIV.  The resulting threat of a too powerful France led eventually to war.

Carlos has traditionally been regarded as a stupid and ineffectual monarch but recent research disputes that view.  And surely it’s time he had a break. 

I have something of a maternal crush on Carlos, whose pallor, fragility and sadness make me want to look after him.

T.E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia. A British Army Officer known for his role as liaison during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turkish rule of 1916–18, becoming an icon among the Arabs. He’s also depicted in two movies: Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence After Arabia (how creative).