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The Internet Should Be a Public Good

The Internet was built by public institutions — so why is it controlled by private corporations?
by Ben Tarnoff via Jacobin on August 31, 2016
Rows of typewriters in front of computers

How Literature Became Word Perfect

Before the word processor, perfect copy was the domain of the typist—not the literary genius.
by Josephine Livingstone via The New Republic on May 2, 2016

Data-Mined Photos Document 100 Years of (Forced) Smiling

A high-school yearbook database dating to the 1900s shows how hairstyles, clothing and smiles have changed.
by Steve Dent via Engadget on November 27, 2015

A Brief History of the Great American Coloring Book

Where coloring books came from says something about what they are today.
by Phil Edwards via Vox on September 2, 2015

The Tragic History of Early Weather Forecasting

Read an excerpt from Al Roker's book about the Galveston Hurricane of 1900.
by Al Roker via TIME on August 4, 2015
Roof spotter looking at New York City skyline
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Route Cause

On the 1870s skirmish between John D. Rockefeller and the upstart competitors who built the country’s first long-distance oil pipeline.
via BackStory on June 5, 2015
tampon

The Tampon: A History

The cultural, political, and technological roots of a fraught piece of cotton.
by Ashley Fetters via The Atlantic on June 1, 2015
People standing in circles holding hands, near a teepee.

Will New Age Ideas Help us in The High-Tech Future?

From Stonehenge to Silicon Valley: how technology nurtured New Age ideas in a world supposedly stripped of its magic.
by Benjamin Breen via Aeon on April 7, 2015

A Brief History of the ATM

How automation changed retail banking.
by Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo via The Atlantic on March 26, 2015
Text overlay over a photograph of a WW1 soldier aiming a machine gun over a pile of sandbags.

40 Maps That Explain World War I

Why the war started, how the Allies won, and why the world has never been the same.
by Matthew Yglesias, Zack Beauchamp, Timothy B. Lee via Vox on August 14, 2014

In Living Color: The Forgotten 19th-Century Photo Technology That Romanticized America

People without the means to visit America's wonders could finally picture it for themselves.
by Ben Marks via Collectors Weekly on May 23, 2014

The Huge Chill: Why Are American Refrigerators So Big?

From iceboxes to stainless steel behemoths: An Object Lesson.
by Jonathan Rees via The Atlantic on October 4, 2013
Pony Express postage stamp depicting man riding horse
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You've Got Mail

The rise and fall of the Post Office from Tocqueville to Fred Rogers.
via BackStory on December 7, 2012

War and Prosthetics: How Veterans Fought for the Perfect Artificial Limb

The needs and entrepreneurship of wounded soldiers have driven many of the most significant advances in prosthetic technology.
by Hunter Oatman-Stanford via Collectors Weekly on October 29, 2012
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.
via BackStory on August 17, 2012
Police car.

The Orchestra

What are the origins of the mechanical siren?
by George Prochnik via Cabinet on March 1, 2011
Aerial photograph of the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

George R. Lawrence, Aeronaut Photographer

George R. Lawrence captured one of the most iconic photos of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. That was only one event in his very interesting life.
by Christopher Turner via Cabinet on November 21, 2008

The Origins of Cybex Space

Cybex fitness equipment fills gyms around the world. Where did it come from?
by Carolyn Thomas de la Peña via Cabinet on March 21, 2008

American Green

How did the plain green lawn become the central landscaping feature in America, and what is the ecological cost?
by Ted Steinberg via Longreads on March 15, 2006
"Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky," a painting by Benjamin West (ca. 1816).

Electricity and Allegiance

Benjamin Franklin introduced the magical picture, an experiment that played on the king's beloved image and his deadly force.
by Anna S. Barnett via Cabinet on March 1, 2006
Binary information.

A Brief History of Character Codes

Character codes have been evolving through multiple systems over multiple centuries, this is the story.
by Steven J. Searle via TRON Web on August 6, 2004
Nuclear weapon mushroom cloud

Mythologizing the Bomb

The beauty of the atomic scientists' calculations hid from them the truly Faustian contract they scratched their names to.
by E. L. Doctorow via The Nation on August 14, 1995
Photograph of cars bumper to bumper on a highway, USA (year unknown, likely during 1970s energy crisis)

How Congress Planned To Solve The 1970s Energy Crisis

Representative Mo Udall's ambitious strategy to wean the United States off fossil fuels by the year 2000.
by Morris K. Udall via The New Republic on June 16, 1973

The New Talking Machines

A noted architect commends Thomas Edison for his progress in developing the phonograph and predicts great things for its future.
by Philip G Hubert via The Atlantic on February 1, 1889
Aerial view of Oakland.

The Future Happens in Oakland First. That’s a Cautionary Tale for Global Cities

International trade boomed with the city’s early adoption of technological and economic changes, but Black neighborhoods became ‘sacrifice zones.’
by Lois Beckett, Alexis C. Madrigal via The Guardian on March 22, 2025
Front entrance of the abandoned Florida Solite plant.

The Machine in the Garden

After decades of unchecked hazardous waste pollution, a Florida hamlet fights the developers eager to build homes there anyway.
by Jordan Blumetti via Oxford American on March 18, 2025
The newsroom of the Mobile Press-Register, ca. 1982.

Journalists and the “Origin Story” of Working from Home

Journalists helped to pioneer what would eventually result in our mobile world.
by Will Mari, Juliette De Maeyer via The Saturday Evening Post on October 14, 2024
A computer, business documents, envelope, and a broadcast tower.

How Tech Giants Make History

AT&T’s early leaders used PR to sway public opinion, casting their monopoly as a public service and obscuring its political roots.
by Richard R. John via Pro-Market on October 10, 2024
Advertisement promoting cocaine toothache drops, 1889.

An Undulating Thrill

Once lauded as a wonder of the age, cocaine soon became the object of profound anxieties. What happened?
by Douglas Small via Aeon on October 4, 2024
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An Early Case of Impostor Syndrome

Why were so many early European books laden with self-deprecation? Blame genre conventions.
by Katherine Churchill via HNN on August 27, 2024
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