almanacs

Almanacs from the Civil War era reveal how two sides of an embattled nation used data from the natural world to legitimize their claims to statehood.

How the American Anti-Slavery Almanac became an influential best seller.

The role of almanacs in nineteenth-century popular medicine.

The wildly popular books helped people understand farming and health through the movement of the planets, in a way compatible with Protestantism.

What did the signs and the phases of the moon mean to moon farmers in the 1840s?

The inventor, philosopher, and elder statesman of the American Revolution never gave up on his first love — publishing.

The black naturalist, astronomer, surveyor, and almanac-writer Benjamin Banneker took issue with Thomas Jefferson’s attitude toward “those of my complexion.”

Early Americans conscripted the universe into their nation-building project.

From “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” to “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” what do bestselling guides to self-improvement reveal about the United States?

How people understood disabilities in the 18th century, in contrast to contemporary interpretation, requires historical nuance.

Harvard digitizes two centuries of colonial history.

The week is the most artificial and recent of our time counts yet it’s impossible to imagine our shared lives without it.

Colonial lessons in civility from the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee.