Top Results for 19TH Century

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German physicist and mechanical engineer who discovered X-rays in 1895 while experimenting with cathode rays at the University of Würzburg. Because the nature of the radiation was unknown, he termed it X-radiation, a name that was adopted internationally. His discovery r...

Standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile commemorates those who fought in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon I commissioned it in 1806, and architect Jean Chalgrin developed its monumental neoclassical design. The stone arch occu...

Charles Darwin's notebooks are historical documents containing the foundational scientific observations and sketches that contributed to his theory of evolution by natural selection. Held by the Cambridge University Library, the notebooks include his 1837 "Tree of Life" diagram used to visualize bio...

Vincent van Gogh was a 19th-century Dutch painter whose intensely personal style significantly influenced Post-Impressionism. He is recognized for his bold use of color and distinctive brushstrokes, creating emotionally resonant images. His work remains influential and continues to be appreciated by...

Edited by R. W. Franklin and published in 1999, The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition presents 1,789 poems in a single volume. It draws on Franklin's earlier three-volume variorum edition, which documents differing versions and readings. The book retains Dickinson's distinctive lineation and...

The Wiener Staatsoper is Austria’s leading opera house located in Vienna. Constructed in 1869, it represents a significant landmark of the 19th century and remains one of the world's most respected venues for lyric opera performances. It serves audiences who appreciate classical music, particularly...

George Boole was a 19th-century English mathematician and logician whose work formalized the algebra of logic. His 1854 publication, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, established a system of logical values now known as Boolean algebra. This mathematical framework later provided a theoretical...

Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser was an Austrian magician active in the mid-19th century who is widely regarded as a foundational figure in close-up and card magic. He developed sleight-of-hand techniques and principles that remain influential in contemporary performance. Among his best-known contributions...

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824–1907), was a British mathematical physicist and engineer. He played a central role in formulating the first and second laws of thermodynamics and proposed an absolute temperature scale, now measured in kelvins. Thomson also contributed to the successful laying...

A dead man tells the story of his own life in Machado de Assis's 1881 novel The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas. Writing from beyond the grave, the privileged narrator looks back on an unproductive life among Rio de Janeiro's bourgeoisie. The unusual premise frees him from ordinary concerns about r...

Bayreuth's Festspielhaus opened in 1876 as a theatre built around Richard Wagner's requirements for presenting his stage works. Architect Otto Brückwald carried out the architectural planning. Its identity is closely tied to the Bayreuth Festival and the performance of Wagner's operas, making it a s...

Tchaikovsky's score gives Swan Lake its musical identity, while the influential classical staging draws on choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. This full-length, nineteenth-century ballet follows Prince Siegfried and Odette, a princess transformed into a swan by the sorcerer Rothbart. Their...

Within nineteenth-century German philosophy, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel developed a complex idealist system concerned with thought, reality, and history. His dialectical approach examines how concepts reveal tensions or limitations and develop through their resolution. The familiar formula of the...

Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) was a French physicist and military engineer whose 1824 treatise Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu established foundational principles of heat engine efficiency. The work introduced the idealized cyclic process now called the Carnot cycle, demonstrati...

William Thomson, later titled 1st Baron Kelvin, helped establish the mathematical foundations of classical thermodynamics. An Irish-born Scottish mathematician and physicist, he developed an absolute temperature scale that became known as the Kelvin scale. Its reference point is absolute zero, givin...

Paul Cézanne was a late 19th-century French painter whose work significantly impacted modern art. He explored form and structure through his paintings of landscapes and still lifes, particularly emphasizing geometric shapes and light. His innovative approach paved the way for movements like Cubism....

Charles Algernon Parsons was an Anglo-Irish engineer and inventor best known for developing the reaction steam turbine. He patented his turbine design in 1884, using successive stages to convert steam energy into rotary motion. The technology was applied to electric power generation and marine propu...

The Nativity Facade is a structural and decorative component of the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, designed by architect Antoni Gaudí. Completed between 1894 and 1930, it is the only part of the basilica finished largely under Gaudí's direct supervision before his death in 1926. The facade i...

Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius (1786-1842) was a German orientalist, theologian and biblical scholar whose career centered on the University of Halle. His work on Hebrew vocabulary helped establish a more systematic approach to reading the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew-German dictionary he published...

James Dwight Dana (1813-1895) was an American geologist, mineralogist and zoologist whose research extended from volcanic activity and mountain formation to marine biology. He joined the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842 under Charles Wilkes, carrying out geological work across the Pac...

Published in 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde follows an investigation into the connection between respected physician Henry Jekyll and violent Edward Hyde. The Scottish writer withholds the full explanation through a structure that combines third-person narration...

Nineteenth-century Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy is known for expansive realist fiction that connects private experience to larger social forces. War and Peace places family life alongside warfare and debates about history, while Anna Karenina examines intimate relationships within the expectations o...

Standing on a reef off Scotland's east coast, Bell Rock Lighthouse has guided shipping since 1811. Associated with engineer Robert Stevenson, it was built where the rock is submerged at high tide, making construction a substantial maritime engineering challenge. Its masonry tower provided a lasting...

J.M.W. Turner was a 19th-century British painter renowned for his atmospheric landscapes. His work captured dramatic light and weather conditions, particularly in seascapes and depictions of the sublime. Turner’s innovative approach influenced Romanticism and continues to be appreciated by art histo...

Thomas Young (1773–1829) was a British polymath whose contributions spanned physics, physiology, linguistics, and medicine. In 1801 he conducted the double-slit experiment, demonstrating interference patterns in light and providing foundational evidence for the wave theory of light. He also proposed...

Jöns Jacob Berzelius was a significant 19th-century Swedish chemist. He is known for pioneering work in determining atomic weights, establishing the first modern system of chemical notation using letters to represent elements. His discoveries included selenium and thorium. Berzelius’s contributions...

Emperor Waltz, or Kaiser-Walzer, is an orchestral waltz by Johann Strauss II, published in 1889. It belongs to the late Viennese waltz tradition, using contrasting waltz sections framed by an introduction and conclusion for concert performance. Its imperial title and ceremonial character connect the...

Georges Méliès was a French illusionist, filmmaker, and theatre owner who applied stage magic techniques to early cinema. He developed and popularized effects such as substitution edits, multiple exposure, controlled camera manipulation, and hand coloring. His 1902 film A Trip to the Moon combined e...

Lord Kelvin, born William Thomson, was a prominent Irish-Scottish mathematical physicist and engineer who worked in the 19th century. He made significant contributions to the mathematical analysis of electricity and the formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics. His most famous lega...