Well-researched stories from Smithsonian Magazine, Noema, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Conrad’s celebration of imperial exploration is accompanied by an acknowledgment that such feats often go hand-in-hand with oppression and exploitation.

Court records can function as a kind of archive for those without any other paper trail in history: free people of color and the enslaved.

An English professor considers the questions raised about selecting queer works for study and discussion when planning a course on LGBTQ+ literature.

Until the Civil War, US Army officers relied on enslaved servants even while serving in “free states.”

Plus his manifesto on Personism and writings about O’Hara by Ted Berrigan, Joseph LeSueur, and Joe Brainard.

With harvests dependent on the spring freeze-thaw cycle, the maple industry is seeking ways to mitigate damage wrought by a changing climate.

The springtime holiday of Hocktide not only allowed villagers to cross social boundaries in the name of fun, it helped them raise funds for nonsecular needs.

The history and politics of an often-maligned foreign policy concept.

Is it scientific impossibility or simply human ego that stops us from entertaining the idea of extraterrestrial visitation?