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“The Town Was Us”

How the New England town became the mythical landscape of American democracy.

This Innovative Memorial Will Soon Honor Native American Veterans

The National Museum of the American Indian has reached a final decision on which design to implement.

Jefferson’s Monticello Finally Gives Sally Hemings Her Place in Presidential History

New exhibits put slavery at the center of Monticello's story, and make it clear that Jefferson was the father of Hemings' children.

How Ceiling Fans Allowed Slaves to Eavesdrop on Plantation Owners

The punkahs of the Antebellum era served many purposes.

Prison Cells and Pretty Walls

Gender coding and American schools.

How the Log Cabin Became an American Symbol

We have the Swedes and William Henry Harrison to thank for the popularization of the log cabin.
Victorian couple courting with a church steeple in the background

Victorian Era

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.
People visit the Trylon and Perisphere at the 1939 New York World's Fair

Color Photos of the 1939 New York World's Fair

Photographer Peter Campbell captured many scenes from the 1939 New York World's Fair in full color, both during the day and at night.

The Ruin: Roosevelt Island’s Smallpox Hospital

An inside look at a forgotten Northeast epicenter of smallpox treatment.

'Housing Is Everybody’s Problem'

The forgotten crusade of Morris Milgram.
Girls in line to enter a bathhouse.

Public Baths Were Meant to Uplift the Poor

In Progressive-Era New York, a now-forgotten trend of public bathhouses was introduced in order to cleanse the unwashed masses.

The Early Master Plans for National Parks Are Almost as Beautiful as the Parks Themselves

In the 1930s, park planning was pretty.

The Strange Ratio of Treasure Island

The perfect correspondence of landscape and information can be seen in Ruth Taylor’s 1939 map.

How the Battle for Sunlight Shaped New York City

As the city reached for the sky, those down below had to scramble for daylight.
Artists' rendering of Cahokia mounds with buildings and people on them.

Finding North America’s Lost Medieval City

Cahokia was bigger than Paris — then it was completely abandoned. I went there to find out why.
Cover of "Ghostland: An American History," made to look like a cemetery headstone.

The Family That Would Not Live

Writer Colin Dickey sets out across America to investigate America's haunted spaces in order to uncover what their ghost stories say about who we were, are, and will be.

Why Are America’s Most Innovative Companies Still Stuck in 1950s Suburbia?

Suburban corporate campuses have isolated themselves by design from the communities their products were supposed to impact.
A distorted image of the the New York City skyline, showing the Twin Towers.

Footage of the Twin Towers Being Built (1976)

A film produced by Western Electric, a haunting glimpse into the construction of the Twin Towers in New York and their early use.
partner

When Air-Conditioning was a Treat

Stories from the early days of air-conditioning in New York City movie theaters, and reflections on the technology's impacts in across the American South.

Reimagining Recreation

How the New Left, urban renewal, safety concerns, and child psychology affected the design of New York playgrounds.
Cubicles

The Moral Life of Cubicles

On the utopian origins of Dilbert's workspace.
The World Trade Center.

The World Trade Center: Before, During, and After

A biography of the towers that became "bane as well as boon to lower Manhattan."

Making the Memorial

Maya Lin recounts the experience of creating the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Eliot Noyes standing outside of an IBM building.

The Complicated Legacy of Eliot Noyes

Noyes is not a household name, but his evangelism for the notion of design as a holistic strategy is so pervasive that many now take it for granted.
Cartoon of well-dressed arm holding a lit match

The Gilded Age Never Ended

Plutocrats, anarchists, and what Henry James grasped about the romance of revolution.
Gaineswood Plantation mansion.

Plantation Tourism Continues to Raise Questions

One plantation tourist manager said covering slavery would be like “trying to tell the story at Disneyland of how poorly the employees at Disney are treated.”
Lancaster Crematorium.

All Is Perfect Quiet

Once again, the crematorium sits silent.
The sold-out crowd at Yankee Stadium’s first opening day.

Major League Baseball’s Historical Quest to Entice Middle- and Upper-Class Fans to the Park

MLB’s focus on wealthier fans stands in stark contrast to rhetoric about the ballpark that had long called it a site of egalitarian intermixing.
The gym and auditorium at Schenley High School in Pittsburgh, built just before the school closed in 2008.

What Abandoned Schools Can Teach Us

Empty chairs, empty tables, and the dismantling of the American Dream.
1950s office worker holding a handkerchief to his brow.

How Air Conditioning Took Over the American Office

Before AC, office workers relied on building design to adapt to high temperatures. The promise of boosted productivity created a different kind of workplace.

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