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An astronaut on the moon with the MTV flag planted.

Watch the First Two Hours of MTV’s Inaugural Broadcast

MTV's 1981 broadcast was advertised to be as important as the moon landing.
Oscar Wilde

How Oscar Wilde Won Over the American Press

When the U.S. first encountered the “Aesthetic Apostle."
The original cast of 3-2-1 Contact!

From Sputnik to Virtual Reality, the History of Scicomm

Instead of yesteryear’s dry and dusty lectures, science communicators are creating new and exciting ways to engage with science.
Crowd pointing to UFO over Chrysler Building

How Washington Got Hooked on Flying Saucers

A collection of well-funded UFO obsessives are using their Capitol Hill connections to launder some outré, and potentially dangerous, ideas.
Ronald Reagan and popular musicians from 1980s, black and white collage with colorful shapes

I Want My Mutually Assured Destruction

How 1980s MTV helped my students understand the Cold War.
A group of contestants at an Emeryville walkathon.

Inside the Sketchy Dance Marathon Craze SF's Women Helped Stop

Dance marathons were essentially the Netflix dating show of the Great Depression.
Thomas Edison exhibiting the phonograph to visitors at his laboratory

Bottled Authors

The predigital dream of the audiobook.
Bathroom scales

The Completely Bonkers History of the Bathroom Scale

A century ago, few Americans had any idea how much they weighed. Here’s why that changed so dramatically.
Collage of FSA and OWI photographs
partner

Photogrammar

A web-based visualization platform for exploring the 170,000 photos taken by U.S. government agencies during the Great Depression.
Rebecca, living the life at the 1927 White House Easter Egg Roll, with first lady Grace Coolidge.

When Rebecca the Raccoon Ruled the White House

Since we have new presidential pets, Champ and Major, we take a quick look back at one of the nation’s most famous four-legged White House inhabitants.
An illustration of a skeleton apparition.

A History of Presence

The aesthetics of virtual reality, and its promise of “magical” embodied experience, can be found in older experiments with immersive media.
A collage including Betty Boop.

The Mixed-Up Masters of Early Animation

Pioneering cartoonists were experimental, satiric, erotic, and artistically ambitious.
Alex Trebek at the Jeopardy host stand.

An Oral History of How Alex Trebek Became America’s Most Beloved Game-Show Host

Four decades of “Jeopardy!” contestants tell the story of Alex Trebek’s rise from affable Canadian TV host to cultural icon.
Photo of Dolly Parton smiling.

The United States of Dolly Parton

A voice for working-class women and an icon for all kinds of women, Parton has maintained her star power throughout life phases and political cycles.
Crowd outside New York theater waiting for Macbeth production, 1936.

"The Play That Electrified Harlem"

Shakespeare's Macbeth and the Federal Theatre Project
Cover of "Little Lindy is Kidnapped"

We Had Witnessed an Exhibition

A new book about the Lindbergh baby kidnapping focuses on the role played by the media.
Black and white photo montage of the cover of We're Not Here to Entertain, with a punk rock singer and Ronald Reagan, superimposed on a background of Minor Threat playing on stage.
partner

Remember Punk Rock? Probably Not...: The Real Culture War of 1980's America

When most people hear the word “punk,” they think of drug addled, nasty behavior. The truth is, it was driven by a visceral hatred for the president.
Broadway New York 1893

Perilous Proceedings

Documenting the New York City construction boom at the turn of the 20th century.

An Oral History of The Onion’s 9/11 Issue

Immediately after 9/11, humorists struggled with what many called ‘the death of irony.’ Then ‘The Onion’ returned and showed everyone the way
Comedy troupe on stage.

Finding the Funny

Historians’ lectures provide material for improv comedians.
Freddie Bartholomew in fighting stance as Little Lord Fauntleroy for the film.

The Masculinization of Little Lord Fauntleroy

The 1936 movie Little Lord Fauntleroy broke box office records, only to be toned down and masculinized amid cultural fears of the “sissified” male.

The Loser King

Failing upward with Oliver North.
Host Jack Barry and two contestants on the game show "21."

Think Presidential Debates Are Dull? Thank 1950s TV Game Shows

The only debate arrangement that everyone could agree to 60 years ago remains in place today – the game show format.

The Decade Comic Book Nerds Became Our Cultural Overlords

Why do they have to be such sore winners?
Richard Pryor

A Nigger Un-Reconstructed: The Legacy of Richard Pryor

Comedian Richard Pryor's performance of Blackness throughout his career.

The Mild, Mild West

H.W. Brands' new one-volume history of the American West reads too much like a movie we’ve already seen.

The End of the Golden Era of Chess

The recent passing of Pal Benko and Shelby Lyman draws the curtain on an American period that produced some of the game’s most sparkling play.

How Horror Changed After WWI

The war created a new world, an alternate reality distinct from what most people before 1914 expected their lives to be.

At Gilded Age “Poverty Parties,” the Rich Felt Free

This bad old tradition isn’t quite dead.

The 100 Pages That Shaped Comics

From Mickey to Maus, tracing the evolution of the pictures, panels, and text that brought comic books to life.

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