Images

Title page of the first folio of William Shakespeare's plays (Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, histories, & tragedies. Published according to the true originall copies), published in 1623. Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale...

Purported portrait of Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare (1564-1616); drawing on the verso of the original title page in the Third Folio (1663) of Shakespeare's works by Sir Nathaniel Curzon, who claimed to have traced it from...

The Plays of William Shakespeare, oil on canvas painting by Sir John Gilbert, 1849. Dahesh Museum of Art, New York.

A house belonging to John Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon, and the likely birthplace of William Shakespeare. Photo by Flickr user John in July 2007.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest surviving work of epic literature, originating in Mesopotamia with its earliest Sumerian poems composed around c. 2100 BCE, during the period of early city-states in southern Mesopotamia. Centered on Gilgamesh...

As part of Herod the Great's building program, with the temple located at the eastern foot of Herod's Harbor and the northwestern unbridgable entrance, the diameter route of its causeway would have expedited the movement of goods and military...

The cabinet of US President James K. Polk in the White House dining room, by John Plumbe, Jr., c. 1846. Bottom row, left to right: Attorney General John Y. Mason, Secretary of War William L. Marcy, President Polk, Secretary of the Treasury...

A daguerrotype of US President James K. Polk and First Lady Sarah Childress Polk, probably taken by John Plumbe Jr., circa 1848-49. James K. Polk Presidential Museum.

Portrait of First Lady Sarah Childress Polk (1803-1891), wife of US Pres. James K. Polk, oil on canvas by George Dury, 1883, after an original painting by George Peter Alexander Healy, 1846. White House, Washington, D.C.

Official presidential portrait of James K. Polk (served 1845-1849). Oil on canvas by George Peter Alexander Healy, 1858. White House, Washington, D.C.