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Front page of the Saturday Evening Post

The Persistence of the Saturday Evening Post

When George Horace Lorimer took over as editor of the Saturday Evening Post, America was a patchwork of communities. There was no sense of nation or unity.
by Amanda Darrach via CJR on November 9, 2021
The full chart of television genres from 1945 to present.

Television Genres Over Time

Here’s how the distribution of genres has changed since 1945 up to present.
by Nathan Yau via FlowingData on October 26, 2021
The cover of the book Her Stories by Elana Levine

Guiding Lights: On “Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and US Television History”

Annie Berke reviews Elana Levine's book on a pivotal genre and its diverse fandom.
by Annie Berke via Los Angeles Review of Books on October 19, 2021
Woman wearing red radio hat
partner

Can Radio Really Educate?

In the 1920s, radio was an exciting new mass medium. It was known for providing entertainment, but educators wondered if it could also be used for education.
by Donna L. Halper via JSTOR Daily on September 15, 2021
Newspaper article titled 'Novel-reading a cause of female depravity'

Why Novels Will Destroy Your Mind

Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, novels were regarded as the video games or TikTok of their age — shallow, addictive, and dangerous.
by Clive Thompson via Medium on September 9, 2021
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.
by Ted Mills via Open Culture on August 6, 2021
Oscar Wilde

How Oscar Wilde Won Over the American Press

When the U.S. first encountered the “Aesthetic Apostle."
by Nicholas Frankel via Literary Hub on July 19, 2021
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.
by Reyhaneh Maktoufi via Massive Science on July 16, 2021
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.
by Jason Colavito via The New Republic on May 21, 2021
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.
by Tom Nichols via The Atlantic on May 8, 2021
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.
by Greg Keraghosian via SFGATE on April 11, 2021
Thomas Edison exhibiting the phonograph to visitors at his laboratory

Bottled Authors

The predigital dream of the audiobook.
by Matthew Rubery via Cabinet on March 16, 2021
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.
by Kelsey Miller via Elemental on February 15, 2021
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.
by Lauren Tilton, Taylor Arnold via American Panorama on February 10, 2021
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.
by Neely Tucker via Library of Congress Blog on January 25, 2021
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.
by Brooke Belisle via Art In America on January 25, 2021
A collage including Betty Boop.

The Mixed-Up Masters of Early Animation

Pioneering cartoonists were experimental, satiric, erotic, and artistically ambitious.
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on December 21, 2020
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.
by Emily Yahr via Washington Post on November 17, 2020
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.
by Lauren Michele Jackson via The New Yorker on October 8, 2020
Crowd outside New York theater waiting for Macbeth production, 1936.

"The Play That Electrified Harlem"

Shakespeare's Macbeth and the Federal Theatre Project
by Paul Allen Sommerfeld via Library of Congress on September 28, 2020
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.
by Chris Yogerst via Los Angeles Review of Books on September 24, 2020
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.
by Kevin Mattson via HNN on August 30, 2020
Broadway New York 1893

Perilous Proceedings

Documenting the New York City construction boom at the turn of the 20th century.
by David Gibson via Library of Congress on June 29, 2020

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
by Maria Schneider, Brian VanHooker, Robert Siegel, Todd Hanson, Mike Loew, Chad Nackers, Carol Kolb, Chris Karwowski, Tim Harrod, Mike Sacks, Nat Towsen, Joe Garden, Jim Romenesko via MEL on June 29, 2020
Comedy troupe on stage.

Finding the Funny

Historians’ lectures provide material for improv comedians.
by Laura Ansley via Perspectives on History on May 13, 2020
Freddie Bartholomew in fighting stance as Little Lord Fauntleroy for the film.
partner

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.
by Kristin Hunt, U. C. Knopfelmacher via JSTOR Daily on March 26, 2020

The Loser King

Failing upward with Oliver North.
by Matt Hanson via The Baffler on March 10, 2020
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.
by Michael J. Socolow via The Conversation on December 17, 2019

The Decade Comic Book Nerds Became Our Cultural Overlords

Why do they have to be such sore winners?
by Alex Pappademas via Medium on December 10, 2019
Richard Pryor

A Nigger Un-Reconstructed: The Legacy of Richard Pryor

Comedian Richard Pryor's performance of Blackness throughout his career.
by Mark Anthony Neal via NewBlackMan (in Exile) on December 1, 2019
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