Hunters in the Snow (Winter) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Climate Canvasses of the Little Ice Age

Low Country artists of the late Renaissance and Early Baroque eras captured the happiness and hardships of snowy winters—an ever rarer phenomenon now.
The Superman costume as worn by Christopher Reeve in Superman III

Still American?

A rumination on Superman, Black consciousness, and living the dream.
A woman proffers a jug of ale to a man in the street from her 'house of shame', in an allegorical 19th century woodcut.

A Pint for the Alewives

Until the Plague decimated Europe and reconfigured society, brewing beer and selling it was chiefly the domain of the fairer sex.
Children walk with their surfboards after surfing in Teahupo'o Bay on August 17, 2023 in Teahupo'o, French Polynesia.

Decolonizing the Language of Overseas France

School systems in French Polynesia and New Caledonia are attempting to revitalize vernacular languages that were suppressed under French colonialism.
Didarganj Yakshi

The Didarganj Figurine: A Yakshi or a Ganika?

Could we be wrong about the identity of this celebrated stone sculpture from ancient India?
Beethoven's Apotheose by Eduard Majsch

The Mystery of Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved”

More than 200 years have passed since Beethoven wrote a passionate letter to his "Immortal Beloved." We still don't know her name.
Glee Mandolin, 1900

The Nineteenth-Century Banjo

Derived from an instrument brought to America by enslaved Africans, the banjo experienced a surge of popularity during the New Woman movement of the late 1800s.
The Roman Countryside by Pietro Barucci

Ride ’em, Butteri! 

Long before spaghetti westerns, Italians were turned on to an image of the American West by Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show.
A painting of Elizabeth Hamilton

Redeeming the Old Maid

Scottish-born novelist Elizabeth Hamilton used her characters to anticipate a future for herself in middle age as a confident and intelligent woman.
Gerda Wegener and Lili Elbe

What Actually Happened to “The Danish Girl” and Her Wife

Lili Elbe, a Danish-born transgender woman, famously transitioned in the early twentieth century. What did her spouse, Gerda Wegener, think about it?