natgeofound: A photograph from Yerkes Observatory depicts…
A photograph from Yerkes Observatory depicts nebulae in the Pleiades, August 1919.
Photograph courtesy Yerkes Observatory
Nostalgia for Stone-Age Tools
Reblogging because the image reminds me of the cover of Burnham’s Celestial Handbook, which I loved, in its self-published typewritten-layout pre-Wikipedia obsessive detail. Today most of its information is obsolete from a scientific standpoint, but my affection remains.
It’s like the musty, massive, 1948 edition of Bowditch (The American Practical Navigator) from which I learned to navigate. It’s mainly of historical interest now, the skills it took pains to impart no more relevant in the GPS era than the knapping of obsidian spearheads.
In their initial conception those works were utilitarian, and that usefulness is mostly gone. But they were also art, because the people who made them continued beyond any reasonable stopping point until they created something beautiful.
Works of art don’t become obsolete. They fall out of favor, maybe; become under-appreciated. But as artifacts of the human spirit they endure, at least in the memories of those who loved them.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/57429919794.
Tags: memory, mourning, art appreciation, obsolete tools that are beautiful testaments to their creators.
