Open Culture (Official)

The World’s Oldest Multicolor Book, a 1633 Chinese Calligraphy & Painting Manual, Now Digitized and Put Online

https://www.openculture.com/2017/07/the-worlds-oldest-multicolor-book-a-1633-chinese-calligraphy-painting-manual-now-digitized-and-put-online.html

An Introduction to The Garden of Earthly Delights & Hieronymus Bosch’s Wildly Creative Vision

https://www.openculture.com/2025/03/an-introduction-to-the-garden-of-earthly-delights-hieronymus-boschs-wildly-creative-vision.html

The Technology That Brought Down Medieval Castles and Changed the Middle Ages

https://www.openculture.com/2025/09/the-technology-that-brought-down-medieval-castles-and-changed-the-middle-ages.html

An Animated Introduction to Anna Freud: The Psychoanalyst (and Daughter of Sigmund) Who Theorized Denial, Projection & Other Defense Mechanisms for Our Egos

https://www.openculture.com/2018/07/an-animated-intro-to-anna-freud.html

How to Rescue a Wet, Damaged Book: A Handy Visual Primer

https://www.openculture.com/2026/03/how-to-rescue-a-wet-damaged-book-a-handy-visual-primer.html

Where Do You Put the Camera? Every Frame a Painting Presents Insights from Famous Directors

https://www.openculture.com/2025/01/where-do-you-put-the-camera.html

74 Ways Characters Die in Shakespeare’s Plays Shown in a Handy Infographic: From Snakebites to Lack of Sleep

https://www.openculture.com/2025/10/74-ways-characters-die-in-shakespeares-plays.html

When Italian Futurists Declared War on Pasta (1930)

https://www.openculture.com/2020/12/when-italian-futurists-declared-war-on-pasta-1930.html

Why Most Ancient Civilizations Had No Word for the Color Blue

https://www.openculture.com/2025/04/why-most-ancient-civilizations-had-no-word-for-color-blue.html

Daisugi, the 600-Year-Old Japanese Technique of Growing Trees Out of Other Trees, Creating Perfectly Straight Lumber

https://www.openculture.com/2020/10/daisugi.html

How Édouard Manet Became “the Father of Impressionism” with the Scandalous Panting, Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863)

https://www.openculture.com/2024/04/how-edouard-manet-became-the-father-of-impressionism-with-the-scandalous-panting-le-dejeuner-sur-lherbe-1863.html

The Genius Urban Design of Amsterdam: Canals, Dams & Leaning Houses

https://www.openculture.com/2025/07/the-genius-urban-design-of-amsterdam-canals-dams-leaning-houses.html

Inside the Automats Where Coin-Operated Machines Created a Modern, Democratic Dining Experience

https://www.openculture.com/2026/03/inside-automats.html

AI Figures Out the Rules of a Mysterious 2,000-Year-Old Board Game from Ancient Rome

https://www.openculture.com/2026/03/ai-figures-out-the-rules-of-a-mysterious-2000-year-old-board-game-from-ancient-rome.html

The Famous Letter Where Freud Breaks His Relationship with Jung (1913)

https://www.openculture.com/2014/06/the-famous-letter-where-freud-breaks-his-relationship-with-jung-1913.html

The Piano Played with 16 Increasing Levels of Complexity: From Easy to Very Complex

https://www.openculture.com/2019/07/happy-birthday-played-on-the-piano-with-16-increasing-levels-of-complexity.html

Salvador Dalí Goes to Hollywood & Creates a Wild Dream Sequence for Alfred Hitchcock

https://www.openculture.com/2025/07/salvador-dali-goes-to-hollywood-creates-a-wild-dream-sequence-for-alfred-hitchcock.html

David Lynch’s Eraserhead Remade in Clay

https://www.openculture.com/2011/08/david_lynchs_eraserhead_remade_in_clay.html

A Brief History of Chess: An Animated Introduction to the 1,500-Year-Old Game

https://www.openculture.com/2019/11/a-brief-history-of-chess.html

How the Brilliant Colors of Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts Were Made with Alchemy

https://www.openculture.com/2018/02/how-the-brilliant-colors-of-medieval-illuminated-manuscripts-were-made-with-alchemy.html

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War: An Animated Chapter-by-Chapter Breakdown of the Ancient Chinese Treatise

https://www.openculture.com/2022/06/sun-tzus-the-art-of-war-an-animated-chapter-by-chapter-breakdown-of-the-ancient-chinese-treatise.html

The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912): The Truly Weird Origin of Modern Stop-Motion Animation

https://www.openculture.com/2019/11/the-truly-weird-origin-of-modern-stop-motion-animation.html

Isaac Asimov Laments the “Cult of Ignorance” in the United States (1980)

https://www.openculture.com/2016/10/isaac-asimov-laments-the-cult-of-ignorance-in-the-united-states.html

Cats Migrated to Europe 7,000 Years Earlier Than Once Thought

https://www.openculture.com/2023/05/cats-migrated-to-europe-7000-years-earlier-than-once-thought.html

The First Robot Movie: Watch a Newly Discovered Georges Méliès Film from 1897

https://www.openculture.com/2026/03/the-first-robot-movie-georges-melies.html

Download 60,000 Works of Art from the National Gallery, Including Masterpieces by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Rembrandt & More

https://www.openculture.com/2026/03/download-60000-works-of-art-from-the-national-gallery.html

Ai Weiwei Creates Hand-Silkscreened Scarves Drawing on a Chinese Paper Cutting Tradition

https://www.openculture.com/2021/10/ai-weiwei-creates-hand-silkscreened-scarves-drawing-on-a-chinese-paper-cutting-tradition.html

An Animated History of Cats: How Over 10,000 Years the Cat Went from Wild Predator to Sofa Sidekick

https://www.openculture.com/2019/01/an-animated-history-of-cats.html

When Salvador Dali Met Sigmund Freud, and Changed Freud’s Mind About Surrealism (1938)

https://www.openculture.com/2020/01/when-salvador-dali-met-sigmund-freud-1938.html

The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the Oldest Surviving Animated Feature Film, Is Now in the Public Domain (1926)

https://www.openculture.com/2026/03/the-adventures-of-prince-achmed-the-oldest-surviving-animated-feature-film.html

Rome in 1890 Captured in Color Photographs: The Colosseum, Forum, Trevi Fountain & More

https://www.openculture.com/2026/03/rome-in-1890-captured-in-color-photographs.html

Can Modern-Day Italians Understand Latin? A YouTuber Puts It to the Test on the Streets of Rome

https://www.openculture.com/2023/07/can-modern-day-italians-understand-latin.html

The Photo That Triggered China’s Disastrous Cultural Revolution (1966)

https://www.openculture.com/2022/08/the-photo-that-triggered-chinas-disastrous-cultural-revolution-1966.html

Mythology Expert Reviews Depictions of Greek & Roman Myths in Popular Movies and TV Shows

https://www.openculture.com/2024/10/mythology-expert-reviews-depictions-of-greek-roman-myths-in-popular-movies-and-tv-shows.html

How Japanese Masters Turn Sand Into Swords: The Art of Traditional Sword Making from Start to Finish

https://www.openculture.com/2025/02/how-japanese-masters-turn-sand-into-swords.html

Cab Calloway’s “Hepster Dictionary,” a 1939 Glossary of the Lingo (the “Jive”) of the Harlem Renaissance

https://www.openculture.com/2015/01/cab-calloways-hepster-dictionary.html

The Greatest Double Agent Ever: How a Spanish Chicken Farmer Became the Most Important Double Agent in WWII

https://www.openculture.com/2026/03/the-greatest-double-agent-ever-how-a-spanish-chicken-farmer-became-the-most-important-double-agent-in-wwii.html

Behold the First Realistic Depiction of the Human Face (Circa 25,000 BCE)

https://www.openculture.com/2026/03/behold-the-first-realistic-depiction-of-the-human-face-circa-25000-bce.html

Algerian Cave Paintings Suggest Humans Did Magic Mushrooms 9,000 Years Ago

https://www.openculture.com/2021/01/algerian-cave-paintings-suggest-humans-did-magic-mushrooms-9000-years-ago.html

An Oscar-Winning Animation of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” Painted on 29,000 Frames of Glass

https://www.openculture.com/2024/08/hemingways-the-old-man-and-the-sea-painted-on-29000-frames-of-glass.html

What the Earth Would Look Like If We Drained the Water from the Oceans

https://www.openculture.com/2020/01/what-the-earth-would-look-like-if-we-drained-the-water-from-the-oceans.html

How John Singer Sargent Became the Greatest Portraitist Who Ever Lived — by Painting “Outside the Lines”

https://www.openculture.com/2023/04/how-john-singer-sargent-became-the-greatest-portraitist-who-ever-lived.html

How Medieval Islamic Engineering Brought Water to the Alhambra

https://www.openculture.com/2024/12/how-medieval-islamic-engineering-brought-water-to-the-alhambra.html

A 13th-Century Cookbook Featuring 475 Recipes from Moorish Spain Gets Published in a New Translated Edition

https://www.openculture.com/2021/10/a-13th-century-cookbook-featuring-475-recipes-from-moorish-spain.html

The Library of Esoterica: Taschen’s Visual History of Tarot, Astrology & Witchcraft

https://www.openculture.com/2022/04/the-library-of-esoterica-taschens-visual-history-of-tarot-astrology-witchcraft.html

Hear Aldous Huxley Read Brave New World. Plus 84 Classic Radio Dramas from CBS Radio Workshop (1956–57)

https://www.openculture.com/2026/02/hear-aldous-huxley-read-brave-new-world-plus-84-classic-radio-dramas.html

Epstein Files Are Missing Records About Woman Who Made Claim Against Trump.

They're now going to have to cover up the cover up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/us/politics/trump-epstein-files.html?unlocked_article_code=1.O1A.5RmW.4-NV61Qy4Ubi&smid=tw-share

Trump just brought the Dow below $50,000. Pam Bondi can now start to care about pedophile victims.

An Introduction to the Codex Seraphinianus, the Strangest Book Ever Published

https://www.openculture.com/2026/02/an-introduction-to-the-codex-seraphinianus.html