The Immortals’ Gossip
Nine hundred and seventy figures of the classical world — and the ones with the best stories rarely made the textbooks. The strangest here, each linking to its entry.
From 1000 Classical Characters, 1895
Special Features
The toys we couldn't resist building: oracles, daily readings, dinner wheels, telegrams and other machinery made from old books.
The Bard Replies
Put any question to the Bard and be answered in his own words, chosen by the 1880s dictionary.
From A Dictionary of Shakespearian Quotations, 1880
The Time Capsule
How 1910 explained the future: the airship, radium and electricity entries, presented as the marvels they were.
From Aiton's Encyclopedia, 1910
Entry of the Day
One entry a day from the five 1910 volumes — the encyclopedia as a daily habit.
From Aiton's Encyclopedia, 1910
The Reference Desk of the Beyond
Lewis Spence catalogued the whole machinery of the supernatural without believing a word of it — and the 1920 encyclopaedia is stranger than anything it debunks. The pick of it here, each linking to the entry it came from.
From An Encyclopaedia of Occultism, 1920
The Séance Cabinet
Write a message; when your friend opens the link, the cabinet goes dark and your words come through the veil. Plus the omen of the day.
From An Encyclopaedia of Occultism, 1920
Ask the Oracle
Put any question to the 1920 Encyclopaedia of Occultism and see how the world beyond answers.
From An Encyclopaedia of Occultism, 1920
Ask for a Burning Word
Name your theme and the 1895 dictionary answers with its most incandescent quotation.
From Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, 1895
The Superstition Locker
Patterson filed every ghost, omen and sea-devil into his 1891 dictionary alongside the blocks and bilge pumps. The pick of them here, plus forty more ranked oddities — each linking to the entry it came from.
From The Nautical Encyclopedia, 1891