What Is Serendipity?
We often credit unexpected events to serendipity. But who amongst us knows The Three Princes of Serendip, the tale from which the word derives?
Race and American Pop Culture in Zainichi Stories
A close reading of the 1996 novel GO suggests zainichi identity is in dialogue with multiple national cultures, including American.
Putting a Cork in It: In Construction, That Is
The bark of the evergreen oak Quercus suber has been used for millennia as a construction material. Could it be our answer to sustainable buildings?
Waiting for Godot Has Been Translated into Afrikaans
What took so long?
Filles du roi: the Founding Mothers of New France
Sent by Louis XIV, the filles du roi were sent to North America to birth new generations of colonists and help conquer the land.
US–Iran Relations: 1953
What really happened in Iran back in the day, and what did the United States have to do with it?
Daniel Burnham in the Philippines
Building on his success as an architect and planner in Chicago, Daniel Burnham took American values and aesthetics to the new US colony of the Philippines.
Jewish Food, Miasma, and Geothermal Power
Well-researched stories from Smithsonian Magazine, Noema, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Tyler S. Sprague on the Intersection of Structure and Design
An interview with Tyler S. Sprague, a historian of the built environment whose work depends on multidisciplinarity and a deep knowledge of structure and materials.
The Rise and Fall of the Equestrian Cultures of the Plains
The introduction of the horse to North America by the Spanish transformed the lives of the Indigenous peoples of the Plains in decidedly mixed ways.