Eiffel Tower, August 1888

The Artists Who Hated the Eiffel Tower

Now an icon of modernism and avant-garde design, the Eiffel Tower was once seen by Parisian writers and artists as a blight on the cityscape.
king cake with baby surrounded by mardi gras beads

Should We Teach K-12 Students the History of King Cake?

King cake, eaten during Carnival season in New Orleans, is more than just a sugar-sprinkled treat. Should students learn about its connections to white supremacy?
Postcard panorama of "Rex" parade on Canal Street, New Orleans Mardi Gras, 1904, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RexPanorama04B.jpg

Why is New Orleans a City of Parades?

New Orleans’ ethnic diversity and lack of public welfare programs contributed to a culture of mutual aid organizations—and huge, festive parades.
Watercolor illustration of Plumeria Acuminata commissioned by Scottish doctor and botanist William Roxburgh, late 18th century or early 19th century.

Plant of the Month: Frangipani

An ornamental plant whose white flowers hang over graveyards and temples in Southeast Asia presents complicated questions on national belonging and religious identity.
Robert Smalls, born in Beaufort, SC, April 1839

Using Data to Discover and Explore the Stories of Enslaved People

Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade brings together datasets from multiple sources in a single free website that anyone can use.
Portrait of Margaret Bonds, 1956

Keeping Scores: Unearthing the Works of Black Women Composers

Black women composers have been active in the US since at least the mid-nineteenth century, yet they’re largely omitted from scholarship on women musicians.
1866 Johnson Map of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware

Emancipation Comes to West Virginia

The Emancipation Proclamation exempted border states from the demand to free enslaved people. But what about West Virginia, which wasn’t yet a state?
Chocolate Bar And Chunks

Chocolate, Earthquakes, and Imposter Syndrome

Well-researched stories from Hakai Magazine, The New Yorker, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
An illustration of a bedroom with a prison guard tower through the window

Controversy and Conjugal Visits

Conjugal visits were first allowed as incentives for the forced labor of incarcerated Black men, the practice expanding from there. Is human touch a right?
A man eating oysters with gusto on the cover of the musical score for 'Bonne Bouche', a polka by Emile Waldteufel, c. 1850

Oyster Pirates in the San Francisco Bay

Once a key element in Native economies of the region, clams and oysters became a reliable source of free protein for working-class and poor urban dwellers.