Early 20th-century women sitting with tea and a guitar.

Secret, Unruly, and Progressive: The History of the Heterodoxy Women’s Club

Bohemian Greenwich Village and the secret club that sparked modern feminism.
Sesationalized painting of Native Americans about to scalp a white woman. The Murder of Jane McCrae by John Vanderlyn, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut

“White People,” Victimhood, and the Birth of the United States

White racial victimhood was a primary source of power for settlers who served as shock troops for the nation.
Stock photo of tomatoes.

The Southern Story of Tomatoes

Tales of the treasured South American-born, Southern-bred vegetable (yes, vegetable).
The icons for mobile phone apps Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
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‘Keeping it Real’ Has Lost its True Meaning

How a phrase tied to authenticity and resistance sometimes just dishes out entertainment.
Yoko Ono looking pensive.

Yoko Ono’s Art of Defiance

Before she met John Lennon, she was a significant figure in avant-garde circles and had created masterpieces. Did celebrity deprive her of her due as an artist?
Museum diorama replica of miners eating.

How to Eat Like a 19th Century Colorado Gold-Miner

A confluence of cross-cultural foodways fed a series of Colorado’s mining booms, and can still be tasted across the state today.
When Tom Cruise starred in Top Gun in 1986, it wasn’t just a box office bonanza — it was a boon to the US military. Paramount Pictures

Hollywood and the Pentagon: A Love Story

For the Pentagon, films like "Top Gun: Maverick" are more than just a movie.
Drawing of ladies wearing "lightning rod hats" ca. 1778.

Electrical Fashions

From the light-bulb dress to galvanic belts, electrified clothing offered a way to experience and conquer a mysterious and vigorous force.
Bar chart of different musical genres on a timeline of when they were popular.

A Timeline of African American Music: 1600 to the Present

An interactive visualization of the remarkable diversity of African American music, with essays on the characteristics of each genre and style.
Sketched portrait of Kim Stanley Robinson in front of a line drawing of the Sierra Navada landscape

Seeing Mars on Earth

Kim Stanley Robinson on how the High Sierra has influenced his science fiction.
Studio portrait of American violinist Maud Powell, c. 1909

Women, Men, and Classical Music

As more women embraced music as a profession, more men became worried that the world of the orchestra was losing its masculinity.
Biggie Smalls posing for the camera, with three friends looking on from behind.

Behind the Scenes of Ready to Die

An intimate look at the creation of an iconic album.
Nixon, sitting in front of a Meet the Press backdrop, gestures to someone out of frame as a production crew member adjusts his chair.

The Secret History Of Richard Nixon, Mets Sicko

The less known story of Richard Nixon and his genuine love and care for his hometown team, the New York Mets.
Illustration of people on different types of bicycles

Bicycles Have Evolved. Have We?

Biking innovations brought riders freedom. But in a world built for cars, life behind handlebars is both charmed and dangerous.
A diagram of early bicycle wheels.

Going Nowhere Fast

The strange past and even stranger future of the stationary bicycle.
Stacked pizza boxes

The Hidden Histories of To-Go Container Art

Who drew that winking chef on your pizza box?
Crowd at Kentucky Derby

The Complicated Story Behind The Kentucky Derby’s Opening Song

Emily Bingham’s new book explores the roots of the Kentucky Derby’s anthem. It may not be pretty, but it’s important to know.
La Choy cans and food

The Korean Immigrant and Michigan Farm Boy Who Taught Americans How to Cook Chow Mein

La Choy cans are a familiar sight in American grocery stores, but behind this 100-year-old brand is a story fit for Hollywood.
Watercolor painting of a person and a dog on a hilltop overlooking a packed campground full of tents and people.

The Confounding Politics of Camping in America

For centuries, sleeping outside has been embraced or condemned, depending on who’s doing it.
The Burr-Hamilton Duel, 1804, Peter Newark American Pictures / Bridgeman Images .

Dueling: The Violence of Gentlemen

What honor required of men.
Couples dancing at marathon

Dance Marathons

In the early twentieth century, dance marathons were an entire industry—and a surprisingly hazardous business.
John Bubbles dancing and Buck Washington playing keyboard, performing in Brooklyn, New York, 1930.

Never the Same Step Twice

Where previous generations of dancers arranged their steps into tidy, regular phrases, John Bubbles enjambed over bar lines, multiplying, twisting, tilting, turning.
Street Painter among paintings in Rome, Italy

W.E.B. Du Bois and the Aesthetics of Emancipation

“I am one who tells the truth and exposes evil and seeks with Beauty and for Beauty to set the world right,” W.E.B. Du Bois said in his June 1926 lecture.
Advertisment for 1947 performance by singers and musicians Billie Holiday & Louis Armstrong

Did the Blues Originate in New Orleans?

Something unusual happened in New Orleans music around 1895. Was it the birth of the blues?
Various photos of Dylan.

One Fan’s Search for Seeds of Greatness in Bob Dylan’s Hometown

The iconic songwriter has transcended time and place for 60 years. What should that mean for the rest of us?
Photo of Danyel Smith.

Danyel Smith Tells the History of Black Women in Pop Music

The author discusses Whitney Houston, Gladys Knight, racism in magazines, and why she’s so hopeful for the future of music and writing.
A Jewish family welcomes home their Navy man and gathers for a Passover Seder at their home in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1943.

How a Coffee Company and a Marketing Maven Brewed Up a Passover Tradition

A collaboration between advertiser Joseph Jacobs and the famous coffee company produced the classic U.S. haggadah.
Photographs of Helen “Ned” Dutcher and Edith Joiner. Both are resting against a set of bicycles. Taken April 25, 1897.

How Bicycles Liberated Women in Victorian America

Cycling culture offered individual women, as well as couples, greater freedom in daily life.
Nas performing at the 2022 Grammys.
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Grammys Have Little Credibility in the Hip-Hop Community

While the awards have recognized achievements in rap, Black artists continue to face musical segregation.
“Dressing for the Carnival” painting, featuring colorfully dressed character Jonkonnu surrounded by Black women and children.

Race, War, and Winslow Homer

The artist’s experiences in the Civil War and after helped him transcend stereotypes in portraying Black experience.