Archives

Be it with its curling tendrils or because of its desirable properties, the cucumber is defined by motion: vertical, horizontal, geographical, and digital.

Railroad photography helped sell an “empty” American West—carefully framing out the people already living there.

Telegraph cables let chess clubs stage matches across continents, linking players and spectators in a new kind of long-distance competition.

The quest for powerful horses reshaped trade and diplomacy across early modern South Asia.

In eastern Kolkata, a Hakka Chinese community carved out an economic niche in leather production amid stigma surrounding purity and caste hierarchy.

In the 1800s, women playing tragic leads captivated crowds while critics struggled to reconcile talent with gender norms.

A literary classic doubles as data, helping scientists trace decades of ecological change in the Gulf of California.

A surprising encounter between high theory and Hollywood farce reshapes how we think about laughter and desire.

An emerging critique examines the moral and cultural assumptions behind horse-based interventions.

In the 1970s, sensors and computers turned the US–Mexico border into a testing ground for automated control.