Breakfast Links: Week of June 9, 2013

Served up fresh for you - our favorite links of the week to other web sites, blogs, articles, and images, collected from around the Twitterverse.
• An 1840 pocket almanac for a lady, complete with a decorated binding and a mirror inside the front cover.
• The medieval practice of using recycled manuscripts to line clothing.
• The glories of Goldsmith's Hall, London.
• How an emigre working as a busboy in New York came to write the beloved children's book Madeline.
• When Victorian housewives were seduced by seaweed.
• Western art history: 500 years of women ignoring men in paintings.
• The "bro" code, c. 1809
• Image: Chinese portrait of young Queen Victoria.
• A rare 18th c. instrument called a Cyanometer, designed to measure the blueness of the sky.
• The abandoned playhouse that was once a treehouse mansion.
• The hands of history: the importance of hands, fingers, and nails in the 18th c.
• A 1912 girls' night out as depicted in John Sloan's painting Renganeschi's Saturday Night - and the menu that was being served.
• Fascinating life of Qui Jin, 19th c. Chinese writer, poet, feminist, & revolutionary.
• Toxic dyes & mercury-laced hats: exhibition looks at the dark side of fashion.
• Image: St. Paul's, London, from the Great West Doors to the East Window, looking up more than 500 feet.
• Rival to Charles Frederick Worth: 19th c designer Emile Pingat and the beautiful clothes he created.
• Chinese historian Chen Yen-hui recreates makeup looks from the Tang dynasty.
• The archives of the Royal College of Physicians offer new insight into the "madness of King George."
• The fashion myth of the Flapper.
• A civil servant in India disappears after defrauding a bank of a large sum of money in 1876.
• Image: Napoleon's toothbrush with a silvergilt handle and bristles made of horsehair.
• Beautiful paintings of women sewing outdoors, 1800-1900.
• An 1882 artist imagines glamorous 21st c. Paris complete with a floating aerial restaurant.
• "Codex Rotundus", a small round book of hours made in Bruges in 1480.
• A short history of executioners.
• Image: advertisements for women detectives in 1890s London.
• Read Shakespeare's plays in a free, mobile-friendly version from the Folger Library.
• An astonishing 19th c. library in Rio de Janeiro filled with 350,000 books.
Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls for fresh updates daily.