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Picture of two early cosplayers at a convention.

How Costumes and Conventions Brought Sci-Fi Fans Together in the Early 20th Century

Andrew Liptak on the origins of cosplay.
Collage of of Stewart Brand peeking out from behind the earth.

Stewart Brand’s Dubious Futurism

What did the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog stand for?
Drawing of John Stuart Mill

Haiti, Slavery and John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was an unusual man who lived an extraordinary life devoted to a set of problems that once again dominate political thought in the 21st century.
Illustration of Thomas Stevens on his bike

The 19th-Century Hipster Who Pioneered Modern Sportswriting

More than a century before GoPro, Thomas Stevens’ around-the-world bike ride vaulted first-person “sports porn” into the mainstream.
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.
Photograph of Mrs. Frank Leslie

‘Mrs. Frank Leslie’ Ran a Media Empire and Bankrolled the Suffragist Movement

A new book tells the scandalous secrets of a forgotten 19th-century tycoon, Miriam Follin Peacock Squier Leslie Wilde, also known as Mrs. Frank Leslie.
Cover of an early Superman comic book.

The Vigilante World of Comic Books

A sweeping new history traces the rise of characters caught in a Manichaean struggle between good and evil.

Macho Macho Men

Bodybuilding is routinely presented as the very apex of male heterosexuality—but its history is a bit gayer than you might think.
“Linen” postcard, depicting cars parked along a city street, in front of "Chop Suey" building, where people are standing outside.

Street Views

Photographs of empty city streets went out of fashion, but lately are coming back again. What's lost in these images of vacant streets?
A selection of newspaper covers from the Reveal Digital American Prison Newspapers collection

Introducing American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside

This overlooked corner of the press provided news by and for people incarcerated. A newly available archive shows it worked hard to reach outside audiences too.
Lithograph of a horse and four dead bison on the plains

How Yellowstone Was Saved by a Teddy Roosevelt Dinner Party and a Fake Photo in a Gun Magazine

Teddy Roosevelt made an unlikely alliance with George Bird Grinnell, and together they made efforts to stop poaching and conserve Yellowstone.
The writer (seen here in a picture from the eighteen-eighties) hid his own life story.

Are All Short Stories O. Henry Stories?

The writer’s signature style of ending—a final, thrilling note—has the touch of magic that distinguishes the form at its best.
Members of Mattachine Society

Harry Hay, John Cage, and the Birth of Gay Rights in Los Angeles

Five men sat together on a hillside in the late afternoon, imagining a world in which they did not have to hide.
They pronouns in multi-colored boxes

Where Gender-Neutral Pronouns Come From

We tend to think of "they," "Mx.," and "hir" as recent inventions. But English speakers have been looking for better ways to talk about gender for a long time.
Revenge of the Goldfish by Sandy Skoglund, 1981

Obscura No More

How photography rose from the margins of the art world to occupy its vital center.
engraving of Harriet Beecher Stowe
partner

A Forgotten 19th-Century Story Can Help Us Navigate Today’s Political Fractures

Reconciliation is good — but not at any cost.
Lee Miller

Photographer Lee Miller’s Subversive Career Took Her from Vogue to War-Torn Germany

She also acted as a muse to artist Man Ray, with whom she briefly led a relationship.
A print featuring fish that look like the American flag.

Propagating Propaganda

Toward the end of WWI, as the U.S. peddled Liberty Bonds, a goldfish dealer bred a stars-and-stripes-colored carp: a living, swimming embodiment of patriotism.
Carvings on two whaleteeth (scrimshaw)

The Pleasure Crafts

Everyday people's creation of porn and erotic objects over the centuries.
A television news reporter in a segment from the 1990s on juvenile crime

Superpredator

The media myth that demonized a generation of Black youth.
A Japanese mother and daughter, farmworkers in California, photographed in 1937 by Dorothea Lange

Whitewashing the Great Depression

How the preeminent photographic record of the period excluded people of color from the nation’s self-image.
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir during an interview for CBS, November 11, 1973.

US Media Talks a Lot About Palestinians — Just Without Palestinians

Although major U.S. newspapers hosted thousands of opinion pieces on Israel-Palestine over 50 years, hardly any were actually written by Palestinians.

Explore 175 Years of Words in 'Scientific American'

Search a 4,000-word database to see how language in the magazine evolved over time.

American Degeneracy

Michael Lobel on Confederate memorials and the history of “degenerate art."
An image of Bob Dylan performing with a spotlight on him.

Tangled Up in Bob Stories: A Dylan Reading List

The author reflects on his own journey with Dylan, and shares some of his favorite pieces of Dylanology.

When Was Toilet Paper Invented and What Did People Use Before?

As coronavirus becomes an ever-increasing threat to our lives, there seems to be one thing that people around the world cannot go without the most.

The Domestication of the Garage

J.B. Jackson’s 1976 essay on the evolution of the American garage displays his rare ability to combine deep erudition with eloquent and plainspoken analysis.
Newspaper clipping of article titled the rise and fall of facts.

The Rise and Fall of Facts

Tracing the evolution and challenges of fact-checking in journalism.

What Maketh a Man

How queer artist J.C. Leyendecker invented an iconography of twentieth-century American masculinity.

Rihanna Reveals the Story Behind her Latest Collection’s Imagery

How the 1960s Black Is Beautiful movement inspired her latest Fenty fashion collection.

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