About the cover illustration

The figure on the cover of Machine Learning Systems is captioned “Japanese Infantry—Musician.” The illustration is taken from Auguste Wahlen’s Manners, Customs and Costumes of All Peoples of the World, a four-volume set published in Brussels by the Librairie Historique in 1843. The books contain scarce and beautiful images: the costumes of the world are finely illustrated with a wonderful series of highly colored full-page plates.

Wahlen, whose real name was Jean-François-Nicolas Loumyer (1801–1875), was an archivist for the heraldic authority of Belgium. Fascination with faraway lands and travel for pleasure were relatively new phenomena in the early nineteenth century, and collections such as this one were popular, ...

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