Blade Gallery

Japanese warrior woman with naginata

Japanese warrior woman with a large Naginata. A naginata is a pole weapon that was traditionally used in Japan by members of the samurai class. It consists of a wood shaft with a curved blade on the end, similar to the Chinese Guan Dao or European glaive or Russian sovnya. Usually it also had a sword-like guard (tsuba) between the blade and shaft as depicted on this card. During the Edo Period, as the naginata became less useful for men on the battlefield, and became a symbol of the social status of women of the samurai class. A functional naginata was often a traditional part of a samurai daughter's dowry. Women of the samurai class were expected to be capable of defending their homes while their husbands were away at war!

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

Hiller YH-32 Hornet 55-4963

United States Army - Hiller YH-32-UH Hornet 55-4963 (msn 7), at an air display on a US Naval Air Station, (note the single-bladed tail-rotor and the hand-held starting engine, lying next to the helicopter). The Hiller YH-32 Hornet (company designation HJ-1) was an American ultralight helicopter built by Hiller Aircraft in the early 1950s. It was a small and unique design because it was powered by two Hiller 8RJ2B ramjet engines mounted on the rotor blade tips which weigh 13lbs each and deliver an equivalent of 45 h.p. for a total of 90 h.p. Versions of the HJ-1 Hornet were built for the United States Army and the United States Navy in the early 1950s. Date: 1956

© The Peter Butt Aviation Collection / Mary Evans A The Peter Butt Aviation Collection / Mary Evans

Circumcision ceremony performed by a Turkish

Circumcision ceremony performed by a Turkish man in front of a mosque. Illustration from Francois Pouqueville's Travels through More, Albania and several other parts of the Ottoman Empire, 1805. Copperplate engraving by Dell'Acqua handcoloured by Lazaretti from Giovanni Battista Sonzogno's Collection of the Most Interesting Voyages (Raccolta de Viaggi Piu Interessanti), Milan, 1815-1817. Circumcision ceremony performed by a Turkish man in front of a mosque. Illustration from Francois Pouqueville's Travels through More, Albania and several other parts of the Ottoman Empire, 1805. Copperplate engraving by Dell'Acqua handcoloured by Lazaretti from Giovanni Battista Sonzogno's Collection of the Most Interesting Voyages (Raccolta de Viaggi Piu Interessanti), Milan, 1815-1817. Date:

© Florilegius/Mary Evans