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Lucille Clifton posing for a photograph; Louisa H. Bowen University Archives and Special Collections; Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Arts & Culture

Remembering Her Memories: Lucille Clifton’s Generations in Our Time

The poet stares history down in an artful, Whitman-infused exploration of traumas her family endured and survived.

The Where We Were

Photograph of Chinatown YWCA in San Francisco (now used by the Chinese Historical Society). Julia Morgan architect. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinatown_San_Francisco_%2826720090647%29.jpg

Julia Morgan, American Architect

Morgan, the first licensed woman architect in California, helped bring parity to the built environment, the community, and the profession.

Plant of the Month

Ilex paraguariensis

Plant of the Month: Yerba Mate

The biological and cultural profile of mate has affected its global expansion, unlike other plants native to the Americas, such as cacao and maize.

Learning to Look

Elements of Design: Spotlight on Color

Color, like line, shape, texture, and the other elements of art and design, communicates meaning and creates visually compelling experiences. Here's how.

Suggested Readings

Illustration of the Earth's layers

Earth’s Core, Anti-Obesity Drugs, and Cosmic Mystery

Well-researched stories from Wired, Black Perspectives, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Most Recent

American Army Entering the City of Mexico, Filippo Constaggini, 1885
Annotations

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Annotated

Signed February 2, 1848, the treaty compelled Mexico to cede 55 percent of its territory, bringing more than 525,000 square miles under US sovereignty.
Amy Robsart by T.F. Dicksee
Politics & History

How Did Amy Robsart Die?

Five centuries later, we’re still not sure whether Robsart, wife of Robert Dudley, fell accidentally, was pushed, or threw herself down the stairs to her death.
JSTOR Daily celebrates Black History Month
Roundup

Celebrating Black History Month

JSTOR Daily editors pick their favorite stories for Black History Month.
From a 1964 stamp from Tanzania
Politics & History

Tanzania in the Cold War Crucible

After the US-Belgian assassination of the Congo’s first Prime Minister, leaders in Tanganyika and Zanzibar worried they would be given the same treatment.

More Stories

The Where We Were

Photograph of Chinatown YWCA in San Francisco (now used by the Chinese Historical Society). Julia Morgan architect. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinatown_San_Francisco_%2826720090647%29.jpg

Julia Morgan, American Architect

Morgan, the first licensed woman architect in California, helped bring parity to the built environment, the community, and the profession.

Plant of the Month

Ilex paraguariensis

Plant of the Month: Yerba Mate

The biological and cultural profile of mate has affected its global expansion, unlike other plants native to the Americas, such as cacao and maize.

Learning to Look

Elements of Design: Spotlight on Color

Color, like line, shape, texture, and the other elements of art and design, communicates meaning and creates visually compelling experiences. Here's how.

Suggested Readings

Illustration of the Earth's layers

Earth’s Core, Anti-Obesity Drugs, and Cosmic Mystery

Well-researched stories from Wired, Black Perspectives, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Trending

A detail from Ophelia by John Everett Millais, c. 1851
Art & Art History

Elizabeth Siddal, the Real-Life “Ophelia”

A working-class woman with artistic aspirations of her own, Siddal nearly died of pneumonia after posing for John Everett Millais’s iconic painting.
Mark Zuckerberg
Science & Technology

Who Wants the Metaverse?

What exactly is the “metaverse,” and what could it be, beyond an overused, hyper-trendy prompt in marketing copy?
Two arms with tattoos
Education & Society

Why Does the Bible Forbid Tattoos?

And have we been misinterpreting Leviticus?

Long Reads

Arts & Culture

Michael Gold: Red Scare Victim

The author of Jews Without Money, a proletarian lit best-seller, was ostracized for his Communism and derided for his prose. Today he is all but forgotten.
An illustration from Paahao Press Volume 2, Issue 1, 1972
American Prison Newspapers 1880-2020

After Attica, the McKay Report in the Prison Press

How was the famous prisoner uprising and its aftermath depicted in the prison press? The American Prison Newspapers collection on JSTOR has answers.
circa 1945: A portrait of American writer Edna Ferber (1887 - 1968) crossing her arms. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Arts & Culture

Edna Ferber Revisited

The first-generation Jewish American novelist exposed entrenched prejudices of her day. A reissue of The Girls introduces her wit to new readers.
Ladies at the tellers’windows of the Fifth Avenue Bank, New York 1900
Business & Economics

A Bank of Her Own

The first US bank for women was opened by a fraudster in 1879. It took 40 years for a reputable women’s bank to be founded in Tennessee.

Editors' Picks

Politics & History

Guns in America: Foundations and Key Concepts

This non-exhaustive list of readings on the role of guns in US history and society introduces the field as a subject of scholarly inquiry.
Politics & History

American as Apple Pie

How marketing made guns a fundamental element of contemporary boyhood.
Politics & History

“I Have A Dream”: Annotated

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s iconic speech, annotated with relevant scholarship on the literary, political, and religious roots of his words.
Politics & History

When Uptown Chicago was “Hillbilly Heaven”

In the 1960s, white Appalachian workers attempted to put down roots in Chicago by building an integrated model neighborhood called Hank Williams Village.
Science & Technology

Who Wants the Metaverse?

What exactly is the “metaverse,” and what could it be, beyond an overused, hyper-trendy prompt in marketing copy?

Science & Technology

Communication network concept of a digital globe

¡AI, Caramba!: Artificial Intelligence and Policymaking

As the use of artificial intelligence expands at the global level, many states are closer to implementing national AI policies. But are they close enough?
Salamander on finger.

The Next (Salamander) Epidemic

Everybody loves salamanders, especially the exotic pet industry. But importing these amphibians helps spread diseases like Bsal and Bd to native populations.
From The Tertiary insects of North America, 1890

Historical Bugs: Archaeoentomology

The remains of ancient insects reveal new information about Paleo-Eskimo life and the history of the Norse in Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands.

Open Community Collections on JSTOR

Llainfadyn cottage. This 1762 cottage is solidly-built of mountain boulders, and a pair of stout oak trusses supports the roof of small, locally-quarried slates.

Vernacular Architecture in Wales

The pioneering collection of farm and craft buildings at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff preserves traditional design and building techniques.

Edmund Dulac’s Fairy Tales Go to War

One of the best-known illustrators of the “golden age of children’s gift books,” Dulac was also a subtle purveyor of Allied propaganda during the Great War.
a pictorial map of the life of Mark Twain

Pictorial Maps of the United States

Explore US history with these maps of national parks, folklore, 1930s Greyhound bus routes, and more!

Syllabus

Mothers' Crusade for Victory over Communism

Moral Panics: A Syllabus

Research-backed stories that consider how and why moral panics begin and spread, who they serve, and what becomes of them in the end.
Dakota pipeline protestors

Celebrating Indigenous Peoples and Cultures

More and more states are choosing to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day instead of Columbus Day.
Comic books and collectibles are seen during WonderCon 2018 at Anaheim Convention Center on March 23, 2018 in Anaheim, California.

Teaching Comics: A Syllabus

So you want to teach The Sandman? Or William Blake? Or Art Spiegelman’s Maus? A guide to using comics and graphic novels in the classroom.

Reading Lists

An illustration of The Hole from an October, 1962 issue of Recount, from Colorado State Penitentiary

Prisoners’ Rights: An Introductory Reading List

A selection of readings and visual material on the subject of prisoners’ rights to foster dialogue and discovery in the classroom.

From Imperialism to Postcolonialism: Key Concepts

An introduction to the histories of imperialism and the writings of those who grappled with its oppressions and legacies in the twentieth century.
An NSA security posters from the 1950s or 60s

Security Studies: Foundations and Key Concepts

Security studies originated in the era of Cold War geopolitics and decolonization. This annotated bibliography introduces readers to scholarship in the field.

We must figure out how to return our sludge back to land.

Waste Not, Want Not

American Prison Newspapers 1880-2020

An illustration of The Hole from an October, 1962 issue of Recount, from Colorado State Penitentiary

Prisoners’ Rights: An Introductory Reading List

A selection of readings and visual material on the subject of prisoners’ rights to foster dialogue and discovery in the classroom.
An illustration from Paahao Press Volume 2, Issue 1, 1972

After Attica, the McKay Report in the Prison Press

How was the famous prisoner uprising and its aftermath depicted in the prison press? The American Prison Newspapers collection on JSTOR has answers.

What’s a Swastika Doing on the Cover of a 1916 Newspaper?

Changes in printing press technology and the history of the symbol may explain its presence in the Wyoming State Prison newspaper, J-A-B-S.

Annotations

American Army Entering the City of Mexico, Filippo Constaggini, 1885

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Annotated

Signed February 2, 1848, the treaty compelled Mexico to cede 55 percent of its territory, bringing more than 525,000 square miles under US sovereignty.
An orangutan attacks a woman and pulls her hair in an illustration for the murder scene in Edgar Allan Poe's short story 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue,' early 1840s. A victim lies on the floor, and a witness watches through a window.

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe: Annotated

Poe's 1841 story, arguably the first detective fiction, contains many tropes now considered standard to the genre, including a brilliant, amateur detective.
A Hundred Years Peace: The Signature of the Treaty of Ghent (Belgium), 1814

The Treaty of Ghent: Annotated

The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812, an oft overlooked conflict that continues to shape the politics and culture(s) of North America.

Politics & History

American Army Entering the City of Mexico, Filippo Constaggini, 1885

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Annotated

Signed February 2, 1848, the treaty compelled Mexico to cede 55 percent of its territory, bringing more than 525,000 square miles under US sovereignty.
Amy Robsart by T.F. Dicksee

How Did Amy Robsart Die?

Five centuries later, we’re still not sure whether Robsart, wife of Robert Dudley, fell accidentally, was pushed, or threw herself down the stairs to her death.
JSTOR Daily celebrates Black History Month

Celebrating Black History Month

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

Interviews

C. Buddy Creech

C. Buddy Creech: Your Vaccine Questions Answered

Vaccinologist C. Buddy Creech on getting vaccinated, racial disparities, and the lessons we’ve learned after a year of COVID-19.
3D render of coronavirus

We Spoke to a Public Health Expert about COVID-19

He made us feel better.
Jill Lepore

Jill Lepore: How to Respond to the Crisis of Our Institutions

Lepore talks about presidential deceit, why women are often forgotten by history, and the “epistemological crisis” of our era.

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