Jeanne Villepreux-Power (1794-1871) has been heralded as the "mother" of aquariophily, and was a pioneering female macalogist (the study of mollusks). Raised in the small village of Juillac, France, she made her way into the world at the age of 18 by walking to Paris where she became an accomplished dressmaker. She achieved initial fame following the celebrated creation of a wedding gown for a Bourbon princess; this led to an advantageous marriage to James Power, a wealthy English merchant who took her to Sicily where they resided for over two decades. Freed from the constraints of supporting...

CATTLE KATE Since her untimely death in 1889, Ellen Liddy Watson, dubbed "Cattle Kate" by local papers of the time, has been tangled in a web of rumors, mystery and all-out lies. Considered an outlaw by most accounts, Watson and her husband were brutally hung by vigilante neighbors near their Wyoming homestead on the grounds of cattle rustling. Albert Bothwell, the ringleader responsible for their unjust murders, was acquitted of his crime following a wave of mysterious deaths and disappearances of all known witnesses. His deep pockets helped sway local papers, who painted the couple as swindlers...

The bizarre stories surrounding the life of Aleister Crowley are anything but few and far between. Dubbed "the wickedest man in the world," Crowley kept heads turning as an avid occultist, insatiable drug user This wallpaper pattern stems from the summer of 1938, which Crowley spent in Cornwall. Some unsubstantiated sources site cultish melees involving dancing beauties, hard narcotics and evenings spent in black magic debauchery. My interest, however, lay with a woman also residing in Cornwall that summer: Katherine Arnold-Forster, nee Ka Cox. Ka, an intelligent and practical woman, was the...

ary Ward (1827-1869) was encouraged to nurture her love of nature from a young age. Born into to a renowned scientific family in Co. Offaly, Ireland, she was educated at home with her sisters and by the age of three had developed a penchant for collecting bugs. These insects became the subject of study for Mary, and with the help of a magnifying glass she began meticulously drawing and reproducing their details. By a stroke of luck, astronomer James South discovered the drawings, and was so impressed with her talent that he persuaded her father to invest This opportunity was a turning point in...

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