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Crowd entering the stadium at the 1896 Olympic marathon

The Invention of the Marathon

The Hellenic inspiration for the 26.2-mile races which draw over a million runners yearly worldwide had nothing to do with sport—but everything to do with war.

The Where We Were

A Postcolonial Preah Vihear

The debate over who “owns” Preah Vihear dates to the early twentieth century, when the French government drew the border between Cambodia and Siam (Thailand).

Shared Collections

The “Vanishing Types” of Doris Ulmann

As her extensive body of work shows, Ulmann felt the loss of an imagined simpler time and tried to preserve it with her camera.

Cabinet of Curiosities

A Mother Superior’s Demons

What does it mean when an entire convent of Urusline nuns appears to be possessed by demons? Many things, as it turns out.

Earwigs, Fungus, and Resistance via Literature

Well-researched stories from Nursing Clio, Ars Technica, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Most Recent

Plants & Animals

Sting! (Don’t Stand So Close to the Tarantula Hawk)

Tarantula hawk wasps offer some of the most painful stings known to humans, giving them almost absolute protection from vertebrate predators.

Health

Legionnaires’ Disease, an Illness of Affluence

Legionnaires’ is the first communicable disease of modern wealth, thriving in the interstitial spaces of our built environment.

The Where We Were

A Postcolonial Preah Vihear

The debate over who “owns” Preah Vihear dates to the early twentieth century, when the French government drew the border between Cambodia and Siam (Thailand).

Shared Collections

The “Vanishing Types” of Doris Ulmann

As her extensive body of work shows, Ulmann felt the loss of an imagined simpler time and tried to preserve it with her camera.

Cabinet of Curiosities

A Mother Superior’s Demons

What does it mean when an entire convent of Urusline nuns appears to be possessed by demons? Many things, as it turns out.

Earwigs, Fungus, and Resistance via Literature

Well-researched stories from Nursing Clio, Ars Technica, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Racist Humor: Exploratory Readings

An introduction to the history and theory of racist humor and the social role it plays in Western societies.

Education & Society

Why Does the Bible Forbid Tattoos?

And have we been misinterpreting Leviticus?

Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ca 1864-70.

Art & Art History

Becoming Beatrice

Dante adored her so much that he cast her as his guide in the Divine Comedy. But who was Beatrice Portinari?

Long Reads

Politics & History

Portico’s Part in Telling the Story of Emmett Till

The Emmett Till Memory Project teaches new generations about the tragedy that kickstarted the Civil Rights Movement. Preserving its digital assets is vital.

Native American midwives weighing a crying Native Amerian child on a set of scales in the hospital at the Glacier National Park, in northwestern Montana, on the Canada–United States border, circa 1945

Health

Call the Midwives—Assuming Any Are Left

While midwife-attended deliveries are the norm in the United Kingdom, they’re the exception in the United States. Time was, this difference wasn’t so stark.

Poster for the film The Deadly Mantis, 1957

Arts & Culture

The War on Bugs

In the 1950s, supersized insects were the villains in a rash of big-screen horror movies. What did those monstrous roaches represent, and how were they vanquished?

A "Gremlin" decorates a B-1B aircraft of the 28th Bombardment Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, 1988

Arts & Culture

Ghosts in the Machine

Forty years ago, Hollywood made gremlins loveable—portraying them as adorable, furry creatures. Their folkloric origins are far more sinister.

Editors' Picks

Science & Technology

Can We Build a Better Facebook?

Is it time to turn our back on Facebook? And if so, what social network could possibly replace it?

Education & Society

Jews vs. the “Judeo-Christian Tradition”

Since the 1930s, the idea of a “Judeo-Christian tradition” has been used in American politics, but some Jews have always taken issue with the entire concept.

Arts & Culture

Verbatim: Fredric Jameson

Marxist cultural critic Fredric Jameson offered a philosophy of late capitalism that gave us a language for talking about globalization and the end of modernism.

Politics & History

The Genocide Before the Shoah

For a century, Jews in Turkey have maintained a strategic silence when it comes to recognizing the Armenian genocide. Could that be changing?

Arts & Culture

Lost Literacies Strips Down the Dawn of Comics

In his new book, literary historian Alex Beringer demonstrates how the birth of the genre of printed comic long preceded the Sunday Funny Pages.

Quirky History

How Al Capone Made Greyhound Racing Great

In the 1920s, Chicago became the greyhound racing capital of the country, thanks in part to the power of mobsters like Capone, who was a big fan.

Ludicrum chiromanticum Praetorii engraved title page emblematizes chiromancy's practical and philosophical components. In the center of the page a pair of hands flank a face; planetary symbols adorn their key features.

In the Palm of Your Hand

Palm reading, also known as palmistry or chiromancy, has fascinated us as a practice and a party trick for centuries.

A detail from Portrait of Ferry Carondelet with his Secretary by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1510

The Merchants of Venice—In Code

Sixteenth-century Venice conducted its affairs in code, so much so that cryptology was professionalized and regulated by the state.

Shared Collections on JSTOR

A Purrrrfect Political Storm

Crazy cat ladies have come to dominate this election season. It’s hardly the first time.

A Selection of Student Confessions

Did you break a campus rule? Let the students of Millersville Normal School show you how to confess to the administration.

Site of house of Garðar Svavarson, the first house built in Iceland.

On the Anniversary of Iceland’s Independence

Iceland is celebrating its 80th anniversary. Three photograph collections shared on JSTOR show how much has—and hasn’t—changed on the island since independence.

Syllabus

Celebrating Indigenous Peoples and Cultures

More and more states are choosing to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day instead of Columbus Day.

Voting in American Politics: A Syllabus

From battles to expand the franchise to the mysteries of turnout, voting is one of the most important things to understand about US politics.

An illustration of a hand holding a set of hand cuffs

A True Crime Syllabus

How did we become so obsessed with “true crime”? This multidisciplinary syllabus shows how we view crime as a whole and how those views have changed over time.

Reading Lists

freelance working at train station before travel. work and travel concept

All Travelers are Infiltrators: An Introduction to the Study of Travel Writing

Travel writing as a genre has arguably been around for centuries, but it didn’t emerge as a distinct field of academic study until the 1980s.

Surrealist artists at the first Surrealist Exhibition to be held in London. Back row, from left, are Rupert Lee, Ruthven Todd, Salvador Dali, Paul Eluard, Roland Penrose, Herbert Read, E LT Mesens, George Reavey and Hugh Sykes-Davies. Front row, from left, Diana Lee, Nusch Eluard, Eileen Agar, Sheila Legge and unknown.

Surrealism at 100: A Reading List

On the centennial of the founding of Surrealism, this reading list examines its radical beginnings, its mass popularity, and its continued evolution.

A young woman sits on the grass with her baby, USA, circa 1975

Motherhood in America: A Reading List

The experience and work of motherhood remained understudied for generations, but since the 1970s, scholars have engaged with the topic in diverse ways.

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Huxley approached the drug with the curiosity of an intellectual and the calculation of a scholar.

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