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The Explorer Who Faked His Way Through the Hajj

Englishman Richard Burton wore several disguises, ranging from merchant to doctor to pilgrim in the holy city of Mecca.

Archive Adventures

The Space Race’s Forgotten Theme Park

Preserved documents and photographs trace the rise and fall of an ambitious space-themed park born of 1960s Space Race optimism.

Roundup

JSTOR Daily celebrates Black History Month

Celebrating Black History Month

JSTOR Daily editors pick their favorite stories for Black History Month.

The Where We Were

H. H. Richardson and the Making of an American Romanesque

Historical photographs help trace the emergence of Richardsonian Romanesque and its lasting influence on American architecture.

Reading Lists

Colorful landscape with colorful mountains and sun

Rights of Nature: A Reading List

What would it mean for rivers, forests, and animals to have legal rights? A global movement is rethinking law’s relationship to nature.

Most Recent

When Mao’s Mango Mania Took Over China

A fleeting cult built around a mango exposes the logic, and illogic, of Mao’s personality cult.
Protestors picket behind a security barrier outside the 15th United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations complex in New York City, 1961.

The Congo Crisis and the Rise of a Pan-African Musical Politics

How Patrice Lumumba’s assassination reshaped Black internationalism—and pushed musicians toward a new kind of activism.

More Stories

Archive Adventures

The Space Race’s Forgotten Theme Park

Preserved documents and photographs trace the rise and fall of an ambitious space-themed park born of 1960s Space Race optimism.

Roundup

JSTOR Daily celebrates Black History Month

Celebrating Black History Month

JSTOR Daily editors pick their favorite stories for Black History Month.

The Where We Were

H. H. Richardson and the Making of an American Romanesque

Historical photographs help trace the emergence of Richardsonian Romanesque and its lasting influence on American architecture.

Reading Lists

Colorful landscape with colorful mountains and sun

Rights of Nature: A Reading List

What would it mean for rivers, forests, and animals to have legal rights? A global movement is rethinking law’s relationship to nature.

Long Reads

When Mao’s Mango Mania Took Over China

A fleeting cult built around a mango exposes the logic, and illogic, of Mao’s personality cult.
Portraits of victims at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago, Chile

Memory’s Role in Chile’s Democratic Rebirth

In post-Pinochet Chile, public memory became a pathway to accountability.
Eirene and Ploutos

In Pursuit of Peace, Ancient Athens Created a Goddess

In the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War, Athenians worshipped Eirene. Her cult reflects the political role of religion in Ancient Greece.
An illustration of a forest consumed by fire as animals flee.

The Fires This Time

To understand current mass burning events better, scientists are turning to the phenomenon known as the Medieval Climate Anomaly.

Caught in nature’s own flypaper, insects are preserved more perfectly than almost anywhere else; some beetles even retained the color of their shells.

La Brea and Beyond

A series of images in color block colors, including a map, a photo of a group of people digging, and an architectural mockup of a park landscape

Designing for Community and Climate in Los Angeles

How can we design public spaces that help people thrive and connect—with each other and with their environment?
Three colorful shapes against a black background demonstrating the idea of national parks and public lands

The Victory of Public Lands

Most Americans agree on the value of preserving public lands. How did the idea of public lands come about, and how can we ensure they exist in the future?
Jane Goodall watching her photographer husband, Baron Hugo Von Lawick, adjust a camera, to which a baboon is clinging, in the Gombe Reserve, east central Africa.

Jane Goodall

An intellectual powerhouse and dedicated conservationist, Goodall showed generations of humans how to engage with—and take care of—the natural world.