Wikipedia:Picture of the day/January 2015

The

Ophelia is an oil painting on canvas completed by Sir John Everett Millais between 1851 and 1852. It depicts the character Ophelia, from Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark; this death scene is not seen onstage, but is instead described in a speech by Queen Gertrude. The painting was completed in two stages: first, the setting (drawn from the Hogsmill River in Surrey) then Ophelia (portrayed by Elizabeth Siddal). The painting is now owned by Tate Britain and valued at more than £30 million.

Painting: John Everett Millais

A female Anthocharis cardamines, a species of butterfly in the family Pieridae. Found through Europe and into Asia, this butterfly prefers damp grassy areas.

Photograph: Michael Apel

The

Check: William H. Seward; scan: Our Documents initiative

The yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris) is a ground squirrel in the marmot genus. Found in the western United States and southwestern Canada, including the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, these marmots live in colonies of about ten to twenty individuals, typically located in open areas at least 6,500 feet (2,000 m) above sea level.

Photograph: David Iliff

The

The poster for an American burlesque production, Bend Her, dating from circa 1900; this burlesque was a take on Lew Wallace's novel Ben-Hur, which had recently been adapted to stage by William Young.

Burlesque productions such as this were variety shows involving a blend of satire, performance art, music hall and adult entertainment such as stripteases. As with Victorian burlesque, the stories were often parodies of popular contemporary works. These shows, mostly featuring female performers, could be put on in cabarets, clubs, music halls, and theatres.

Poster: Courier Company; restoration: Adam Cuerden

The first page of the original handwritten text of the

Read further: Page 2, Page 3, Page 4

Document: Constitutional Convention; scan: National Archives

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Photograph: Michael Murphy

The Tobler hyperelliptical projection is a family of equal-area pseudocylindrical map projections first described by Waldo R. Tobler in 1973. The imagery used for the map is derived from NASA's Blue Marble summer months composite, with oceans lightened to enhance legibility and contrast.

Map: Strebe, using Geocart

The Pearl and the Wave is an oil painting on canvas completed by Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry in 1862 which depicts a nude woman lying on the edge of a rocky shore as waves break around her. It was an object of curiosity when exhibited, and the artist Kenyon Cox described it as "the perfect nude". More recently, however, it has been described as voyeuristic. In 1863 the painting was purchased by Empress consort Eugénie de Montijo. It is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain.

Painting: Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry

Two

Photograph: Evan Amos

The black-capped kingfisher (Halcyon pileata) is a large tree kingfisher found throughout tropical Asia. First described by Pieter Boddaert in 1783, this species frequents coastal waters, particularly those with mangroves. It feeds primarily on insects.

This individual was found in Phra Non,

Photograph: JJ Harrison

Austroicetes frater (the southern austroicetes) is a species of grasshopper in the genus Austroicetes which is found in Australia. First described by Karel Brančik in 1898, this species is abundant from mid-August to early December.

Photograph: JJ Harrison

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Petra Martić (b. 1991) is a tennis player from Split, Croatia. Beginning her career as a junior in 2006, Martić turned professional in 2008. She reached a career high of World No. 42 in 2012 in women's singles.

This portrait was taken during her first-round win against

Photo: David Iliff

The

An Armenian woman in traditional dress, photographed on a hillside near Artvin circa 1910 by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky.

This early color photograph was created through the three-color separation process. Three black-and-white exposures were taken, using red, blue, and yellow filters. These exposures were then projected with similar colored filters to create a full-color image.

Photo: Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky; restoration: Keraunoscopia

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The common greenshank (Tringa nebularia) is a sub-Arctic migratory wader which breeds from northern Scotland eastwards across northern Europe and Asia. They feed on small invertebrates, but will also take small fish and amphibians.

Photograph: JJ Harrison

The skull of a proto-Nazcan person (c. 200-100 BC), which has been artificially shaped. In the proto-Nazcan culture, this was achieved by binding a cushion to an infant's forehead and a board to the back of the head, creating an elongated shape. It is unknown why this was done; theories suggest that this was meant to create an ethnic identity, form the individual into a social being, or illustrate social status.

Photograph: Didier Descouens

The entrance to the harbor of Lindau, Bavaria, Germany, a major town and island in the international Lake Constance. The current harbor in Lindau was built in the mid-19th century, together with the Bavarian Lion (left) and the Lindau Lighthouse (right). The harbor entrance serves as a tourist attraction.

Photograph: Julian Herzog

The Albers projection is a conic, equal area map projection, named after Heinrich C. Albers, that uses two standard parallels. Although scale and shape are not preserved, distortion is minimal between the standard parallels. This map is used by such agencies as the United States Geological Survey, the United States Census Bureau, and the governments of British Columbia and Yukon.

Map: Strebe, using Geocart

Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) was a French poet best known for his collection Les Fleurs du mal (1857), which expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the 19th century. The author also worked as an essayist, art critic, and translator; in the 1850s and 1860s, he published several translations of works by Edgar Allan Poe.

Photograph: Étienne Carjat

The Chinese pond heron (Ardeola bacchus) is an East Asian freshwater bird of the heron family. Generally measuring 47 cm (19 in) in length, this heron feeds on insects, fish, and crustaceans. The specimen shown here, photographed in Laem Phak Bia, Thailand, is in its winter plumage.

Photograph: JJ Harrison